[ILRI] Healthy and productive small ruminants play a key role in supporting women’s empowerment in low- and middle-income countries. This is because small ruminants (goats and sheep) are more likely to be owned and controlled by women and have been shown to support women’s livelihoods, their empowerment and their households’ nutritional status outcomes.
Animal vaccines, among other animal health services, are essential for maintaining livestock health and productivity. But some gender-based restrictions limit women’s access to animal health services, thereby affecting the potential of the livestock they own and control to enhance their empowerment. At the same time, devastating livestock diseases such as peste des petits ruminants (PPR) limit the productivity of the small ruminant industry and cause substantial economic losses to small ruminant farmers, particularly women goat keepers.