Following the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, staff from SNV’s global Dairy and Extensive Livestock Commodity Teams met in Nairobi on 27 May 2014 with scientists from ILRI and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

The meeting aimed to help the various partners map interests and expertise as a basis for further collaboration.

The meeting focused around collaboration in dairying and around extensive livestock systems:

The team agreed to work on the following areas:

• Share available studies and data
• Work together to prepare research proposals
• Collaboration on existing initiatives
• Organize collaboration sets around signature issues
• Conduct new research and carry out documentation together
• Work to make research evidence applicable in field contexts
• Strengthen gender and youth equity practice and research

In a similar vein, on 5 June, the teams from SNV, ILRI and CIAT held a second round of meeting to explore collaboration in value chain development and gender in agriculture. Agreement was made for working groups to:

• Establish individual connections among all the delegates
• Initiate ongoing dialogue between parties in order to deepen gender understanding and possibilities
• Map out work that is going on and identify overlapping interests in value chain development
• Identify specific areas on which to commence joint work
• Work together to prepare research proposals

Stuart Worsley, head of development partnership, Livestock and Fish program and Jurjen Draaijer, from SNV have been tasked to take this work forward.

Download the meeting report: A Meeting of Minds: Report from discussions between SNV and the Livestock and Fish research program, Nairobi, 27 May 2014