Launch of new SEBI-Livestock five year programme

Thursday 10th December 2020, 5:00pm

New SEBI-Livestock five-year programme is launched to continue their work on monitoring the impacts of livestock investments in low-and middle-income countries, supporting the LD4D community to deliver solutions, and developing livestockdata.org as a valuable data and evidence resource for the sector.



Cows and calves in a filed - credit Roslin Innovation Centre

Looking to the future

2020 has been a tough year for everyone. Researchers, funders, veterinarians, entrepreneurs and livestock keepers have all felt the impacts of the global pandemic.

It has also been also a transformational year. COVID-19 has put zoonotic diseases at the forefront and underscored the need to make One Health a top priority. There is new awareness about the fragility of our food supply and the need for systems-based solutions. This crisis has also reaffirmed the need for good data, and more evidence-based decisions to tackle development challenges.



These challenges resonate with the work carried out by SEBI-Livestock. Supporting Evidence Based Interventions (SEBI) mobilises and applies data and evidence to help the livestock community make better investments that improve livelihoods for smallholders in low and middle-income countries. As they wrap up their first phase of work, they are proud of what has been achieved in four years:

  • Engaging with nearly 400 people from across the livestock sector via the Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) community of practice, a platform to share, discuss and collaborate on solutions to data challenges.
  • Helping the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and its grantees develop key metrics and insights on the impacts of livestock investments in low-and middle-income countries.
  • Applying machine learning and artificial intelligence to collate and improve the evidence base on animal health, starting with Ethiopia.
  • Deploying evidence-based pilot interventions to reduce mortality and reproductive losses in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania.
  • Advancing eight innovative technologies for improving livestock health and productivity in LMICs.
  • Launching livestockdata.org – a data and evidence platform by and for the livestock community.

"I am grateful to our entire team for their hard work, to our partners for helping us deliver these results, and to our funders the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for supporting us. As 2020 winds down, it is also an opportunity to look ahead. With this in mind, I am pleased to announce SEBI-Livestock – a new five-year programme which will continue our work on monitoring the impacts of livestock investments, supporting the LD4D community to deliver solutions, and developing livestockdata.org as a valuable data and evidence resource for the sector."

Professor Andy Peters, SEBI-Livestock Program Director, The Centre for Supporting Evidence-Based Interventions in Livestock

The new programme is accompanied by a (slightly) new name and new look, as well as a new website going live in the new year. Also in 2021, SEBI-Livestock will hold a series of engagement events with their partners and the LD4D community to discuss workplans and collaborations – stay tuned!



Source: The University of Edinburgh


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