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Nested Scales of Sustainable Livelihoods: Gendered Perspectives on Small-Scale Dairy Development in Kenya

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  • Pratyusha Basu

    (Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA)

  • Alessandra Galiè

    (International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi 00100, Kenya)

Abstract

The sustainability of rural development programs has often been conceptualized through the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, or SLF. This article utilizes the SLF to examine the outcomes of small-scale dairy development in western Kenya and thus connect local perspectives on livelihoods with broader ideas of sustainable livelihoods. Drawing on individual interviews conducted with farmers in three dairy development sites in western Kenya, it examines compatibilities and contradictions between productivity and sustainability, and how gender becomes a vantage point from which the links between micro- and macro-sites, or nested scales of sustainable livelihoods, become visible. Three main kinds of benefits related to dairy development are identified by respondents: increase in income, access to market, and ability to keep improved cattle. In conjunction with these benefits, respondents identified problems related to women’s independent access to income, wider community consumption of milk, and lack of infrastructure, respectively. This study thus shows that while income and productivity is prized by all respondents, gender enables this broader goal to be viewed in more nuanced terms—not only within the household, but also through links between the household and the wider community and state. Gender thus becomes salient across the nested scales of sustainable livelihoods and provides insights into how a more encompassing notion of sustainable livelihoods can be implemented.

Suggested Citation

  • Pratyusha Basu & Alessandra Galiè, 2021. "Nested Scales of Sustainable Livelihoods: Gendered Perspectives on Small-Scale Dairy Development in Kenya," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-24, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:16:p:9396-:d:619023
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rao, Elizaphan J. O. & Omondi, Immaculate & Karimov, Aziz A. & Baltenweck, Isavelle, 2016. "Dairy farm households, processor linkages and household income: the case of dairy hub linkages in East Africa," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 19(4), October.
    2. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    3. Katie Tavenner & Todd A. Crane, 2018. "Gender power in Kenyan dairy: cows, commodities, and commercialization," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(3), pages 701-715, September.
    4. Sumi Krishna, 2012. "Redefining Sustainable Livelihoods," Gender, Development and Social Change, in: Wendy Harcourt (ed.), Women Reclaiming Sustainable Livelihoods, chapter 2, pages 12-18, Palgrave Macmillan.
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