Review on Gender Roles in Livestock Value Chain in Ethiopia

This paper is reviewed based on livestock value chain from gender perspectives in Ethiopia. Livestock are generally considered a key resource for rural livelihoods and they also play significant economic and cultural roles in the country. They can also be an entry point to promote gender empowerment in rural areas because livestock activities are a daily occupation and animal products such as milk, butter and meat are produced, processed and marketed in the country, with men and women contribution for the work. For these reasons, it is important to review gender roles and access to, control over and benefit from the resources along the livestock value chain and factors affecting women participation in livestock value chain in the country. The paper is reviewed based on a desk research of the synthesis and site-specific/country level studies from the livestock commodities’ value chain conducted in Ethiopia. Accordingly, both men and women play a significant role along the stages of livestock value chain in the country. Women mostly participated in gathering feed and provide feed to the livestock, watering, take care of the sick and young animals, contribute to cleaning the animal shelter, milking and contribute to sale of the livestock products. Men are specifically involved in herding, cutting forage, marketing and taking livestock to health centers. Livestock ownership between men and women is strongly related to social, cultural and economic factors. It also depends on the kind of livestock they raise. Large livestock are owned by men while smaller animals such as goats, sheep and poultry are mostly owned by women. Although small ruminants are often owned by women, it is the men who are responsible for their disposal and thus in charge of making decisions related to their sale. Gender related factors such as poor technical skills in animal care, limited veterinary services, limited access to markets and poor marketing skills, limited access to financial and extension services, high illiteracy levels and social expectations in the community, less ownership and benefits from the productive assets tend to affect women’s participation to livestock value chain. Therefore, to contribute to household security, women should be supported as livestock owners, processors and users of benefits as men for strengthening their decision making power at the household level and also, to reduce poverty, women should be supported economically as well as socially.


Introduction
The diverse biophysical and agro-climatic conditions in Ethiopia make it suitable and potential for the production of different kinds of livestock. Livestock value chain analysis is essential to understand the existing markets; structure and relationships; participation of different actors, men and women; and the constraints that limit growth of livestock sector and the compositeness of smallholder farmers [1]. Gender is an important aspect of value chain since gender relations both affect and are affected by the ways in which value chains function. Such gender analysis and integration of gender issues is usually however the weakest point in most value chain analyses and largely ignored in most value chains [2,3]. Gender issues fundamentally shape the totality of production, distribution and consumption within an economy but have often been overlooked in value chain development [4]. Most current value chain development has failed to integrate gender analysis. Value chain development policies are often based on gender-blind or gender-discriminatory assumptions [5].
Although value chain approaches is widely adopted as strategy for enhancing economic growth and reduction of poverty, few have considered how gender issues affect value chain [5]. The knowledge among practitioners and policy makers on the gender aspects of value chain intervention are still limited [7]. Also, it has been reported that little is known about gender in value chain and that there is insufficient evidence to make general statements about gender roles in different kinds of value chains [8]. Previously, women who participated in livestock value chain were confined to lower levels of the chain and suffered more inequalities in the upper levels of the value chain where benefits are shared and distributed [9]. They also lacked the ability to make decisions regarding the use of proceeds from the chain activity venture.
In livestock farming systems, there is a division of labor. This determines the different tasks for which men and women are responsible. Generally, women have an important role in the production, processing, preservation, preparation and sales of animals. Men tend to focus on market-oriented production. Women and children often look after the smaller livestock species and men are often in charge of cattle [10]. An existence of differences in the livestock value chain by male and female signifies the importance of gender consideration in livestock value chain. In most countries, research and planning activities in the livestock sector are largely dominated by men. Official livestock services, extension programs and educational materials are mainly controlled, designed, and extended by and oriented towards men. At present, in many societies, women's access to information and training in modern livestock management continues to be limited [10]. Because of these, it is important to recognize that gender considerations in livestock value chain always need to take into account both men's and women's roles, access to and control of resources and benefits from the activities. Failure to consider these differences, between men and women, leads to unsuccessful project activities. Thus, understanding gender relationships and adjusting methods and messages is crucial for the full participation and benefits of all the community.
However, reviews of evidence on the importance of livestock for women have argued that, even though two-thirds of the world's poor livestock keepers are rural women, limited research has been conducted in recent years on their roles in livestock keeping [10]. Livestock has been described as an asset that women can sometimes acquire or control more easily than land or other physical or financial assets, although the relative informality of livestock property rights can be disadvantageous to women when their ownership of animals is challenged [4]. It is also more common for women to own livestock jointly with men than to have sole ownership of them. However, income from livestock can be advantageous to women even if they do not solely own the animals; participation in a livestock value chain increased the value of assets jointly owned by women and men, and gave women a wider range of options in saving or accessing credit [11]. Therefore, also Ethiopia has a potential of livestock population due to its suitable climatic condition for the livestock, detailed gender roles in the key stages of the value chains has not yet been systematically reviewed and documented in the country. Due to this reason, the review of gender in livestock value chain has been initiated to understand the role of gender and factors affecting women participation in the chain in Ethiopia.

Objectives
General objective To review gender roles and factors affecting women participation in livestock value chain in Ethiopia.
Specific objectives To review gender roles and access to, control over and benefit from resources along the livestock value chain in the country.
To review factors affecting women participation in livestock value chain in Ethiopia.
Approach/methods of the review This review is based on a desk review of the synthesis and site-specific/country level studies from the livestock commodities' value chain conducted in Ethiopia. It highlights the major gender roles, gender access to services, gender control over and benefit from resources and factors affecting women participation along the main stages of livestock value chain in the country. It starts by reviewing which gender issues are important to address in relation to livestock value chain development from input supply to consumption. Gender information gaps from the review of the studies are highlighted and the information required for a gender sensitive value chain analysis is suggested.

Gender Roles and Relations Concepts
Gender is defined as 'the socially constructed roles and status of women and men, girls and boys [9]. It is a set of culturally specific characteristics defining the social behaviour of women and men, and the relationship between them. Gender roles, status and relations vary according to place (countries, regions, and villages), groups (class, ethnic, religious and caste), generations and stages of the lifecycle of individuals. Gender is, thus, not about women but about the relationship between women and men. The term gender not defined as a biological expression for distinguishing men and women but as a social construct to determine the perceptual and material relationships between the both sexes [12]. Gender is considered a central organizing principle of societies that often governs the processes of production and reproduction, consumption and distribution.
Gender roles are the social and behavioral norms that are generally considered appropriate for either a man or a woman in society. Gender roles demarcate responsibilities between men and women in social and economic activities, access to resources and decision-making authority. Biological roles are fixed but gender roles can and do shift with socio-economic and technological changes. Social factors can reinforce or decrease gender-based disparities [13].
Capturing this data helps us understand the roles of men and women along the value chain, how men and women relate to each other, where activities are conducted and the extent to which different household members are involved at each stage of value chain. The roles assigned to men and women have an impact on their ability to access resources and influence their power to decide upon resources and the benefits that accrue from using those resources. The assigned roles also influence the opportunities that might be available for women and other marginalized groups to participate in more remunerative nodes of the value chain. In many societies gender norms influence who is supposed to carry out certain types of activities and who is expected to complete certain tasks, which differentiation may reinforce or transform gender inequalities.

Gender Roles in Livestock Value Chain
In many societies, handling of large livestock is usually controlled by men while women are responsible for smaller animals. In a household, husband and wife may have either shared or separate objectives or interests in livestock farming, and each one tries to work toward achieving them. With increasing migration and off-farm work by men, the workload of women becomes greater as they become involved in activities carried out by men before. Patterns of gender division of labor are location-specific and change over time.
Although the most typical pattern of gender division of labor is that women are responsible for animals kept at the homestead, there are many variations to this pattern from noninvolvement in livestock to the management and herding of large stock. In general, women tend to spend the money they earn from livestock activities on the welfare of their families. In many societies, the little income derived from daily milk sales is sometimes used by men for drinking. This continues to be an intractable issue in many societies [14]. Due to differences in men's and women's use of income, increases in men's earnings from livestock-related activities may not be necessarily translated into improved household nutrition, whereas women tend to first increase household well-being. In a general rule, men have easier access to government provided credit than women. Women are rarely considered creditworthy because they have no collateral. In addition, they often cannot read and write, and are not used to frequent governmental or official institutions without their husbands consent and being accompanied.

Gender Division of Labour in Livestock Production
The gender analysis for livestock indicated that, although the division of tasks varies between commodities and between locations, it is possible to make some broad generalizations regarding the typical division of labour between women and men in livestock production. Men play a key role in management of high value livestock enterprises such as cattle, small ruminants, apiculture and camels. They are also responsible for tasks that require networking and activities outside the home, such as accessing information, breeding, rearing and animal health, particularly in terms of accessing modern health services. They are also involved in heavier manual activities like housing and slaughtering. Women in livestock production are typically engaged in activities related to the safety and wellbeing of the livestock that are performed around the homestead, such as collecting dung and maintaining hygiene. They are also involved with activities closely related to their household activities and are often responsible for storing, processing and adding value to the livestock products. The tasks of feeding and watering livestock are often shared and other household members (boys and girls) may also participate.

Gender Roles in Livestock Marketing and Sharing the Benefits
Control over the benefits of production also varies between women and men, partly reflecting their labour input, but also reflecting the use of produce at home or for sale, cultural norms regarding women's and men's enterprises, and also influenced by the wealth of the household. Generally there is an imbalance between workloads and share in the benefits of production. Men tend to control the income from many livestock commodities where they dominate or share the workload such as large ruminants. There are also enterprises in which women and men share both the workloads and the benefits like cattle and poultry. In contrast, there are very few enterprises in which women dominate both the workloads and the control of the benefits; the exceptions are poultry in several sites. However, women control the income from few commodities arising from joint endeavors, such dairy products in some parts of the country.

Gender Roles in Dairy Value Chain
Gender roles are shared cultural expectations which are performed by individuals based on their society identified gender. Gender roles are behaviour tasks and responsibilities that are considered appropriate for women and men because of social cultural norms and beliefs [4]. Culture, norms and beliefs of societies differ and this implies that no generalization can be made on gender roles. Roles played by men, women, male children, female children and hired labour cannot be generalized across different societies of dairy keepers. Moreover in other families dairy keeping is not the main economic activity. For example, in families where both husband and wives are civil servants it is obvious that what could have been done by them has to be done by hired labour and children instead.
Apart from cultural differences there are similarities of roles played. There was the report that women played their roles with the assistance of children in milking, feeding and watering of animals [15]. Men's roles were taking care of sick animals, fodder collection and storage. To accomplish roles that different members of households are responsible to, resources are necessary. In this case gender roles played by different members of households have implications on access to resources. Gender roles assigned to men and women have impacts on their respective access to resources and the power to decide over benefits of using those resources [16].
FAO has a long history of working in smallholder dairy development and has learned that well-designed dairy development programmes can improve the incomes and nutrition of poor households, as well as providing employment in milk processing and marketing. Demand for dairy products has grown steadily and continues to grow, particularly in the urban centers of the country. Small-scale dairy production is considered beneficial to women and children as well as men. Milk sales provide regular income that is often accessible to women, while dairy products can be important in diversifying the diets of poor people, in particular children above the age of 12 months and undernourished pregnant women. The gender analysis assesses women and men's roles and responsibilities, their different needs, constraints and challenges along selected dairy value chains. Also, it identifies the contributing factors to reversing gender inequalities and draws general guidelines on how to design and implement gender sensitive dairy value chain development. The assessment was conducted by a national consultant under the overall supervision of an international consultant and the FAO ESP team in Rome, and with collaboration from the FAO Representation Office in Ethiopia.
There is an increasing awareness in Ethiopia of the important and traditional role of female in dairy production. Dairy production provides women with a regular daily income, vital to household food security and family wellbeing. In the past, development interventions targeted men, and the changes introduced frequently resulted in higher labour input by women while women's control over production and output decreased. Gender differences are now more often taken into account at all stages of development planning and management.
The gender division of tasks in livestock production and management noted that while roles and responsibilities vary between commodities, locations and the wealth of the household, it is possible to make some broad generalizations. Women tend to be responsible for activities carried out at or near the home, activities required for the day-to-day care of animals, and storing, processing and adding value to livestock products, while men are more often responsible for activities outside the home. This is evident from observations and analysis in a number of published reports [17]. This corresponds to the findings of this study, where women tended to be predominantly involved in the day-to-day management of dairy cattle as well as home-processing of milk into butter and cheese. The research study found that women are predominantly engaged in the production and marketing of milk and milk products [17]. Women in rural areas sell and control income from butter, while women in peri-urban and urban areas sell and control income from milk. This study found that women were predominantly engaged in selling dairy products in informal, local markets and less engaged in formal processing, but could be involved in formal retailing, although not usually as the owner of a retailing business.
However, there are always exceptions to general patterns.
For example, in female-headed households, the head of household may have considerable decision-making power and may consult the adult males of the household less than a husband might consult his wife in a male-headed household. The research report indicated that 15-30 percent of Ethiopian rural households are headed by women [12]. They tend on average to be poorer than those headed by men and may be less food-secure, but as noted by other researcher, the female head of a household may enjoy greater control over resources than married women [10]. However, they may also have less access to information from development initiatives that target men, which results in information 'trickling across' to married women. In female-headed households, the household head tends to have full responsibility for sale of dairy products like milk, and butter and control over the income. This is not only because most female-headed households are solely managed by the women heads, but also in female headed households with the presence of a male partner, decisions over major household resources remain under the sole control of the women heads. The male partner in a female-headed household is a passive player, who has usually come into the partnership mainly due to his lack of access to land, financial resources or other assets. In male-headed households, the male head is more involved in selling bigger animals while women are more involved in selling livestock products such as milk, butter and cheese. However, the income from the sales of all sources is jointly controlled by both spouses in most households [12]. Certain tasks are negotiated and shared between household members, but this may vary according to various factors.
Only in female-headed households, women control the decisions; yet these tend to be in consultation with their male relatives. Even when men appear to be in control of decision-making, they usually consult their wives, who have a strong influence on the outcome. This review found that women were predominantly involved in dairy production activities. Both men and women take part in livestock management, but women generally contribute more labour inputs than men and children in areas of feeding, taking care of calves and animals when sick, cleaning of stalls, milking, butter and cheese making, and selling milk and its products. Children are more involved in herding animals and taking milk to collection centers.
Feed preparation and feeding of dairy cattle mostly accomplished by women (58%) than male (29.4%) counterpart [18]. The current result showed that there is significant difference in the involvement of different household members in providing water for their dairy cattle in particular and for their livestock in general. Accordingly, fetching of water and providing at home seemed a main responsibility of female members (mother-51% and daughter-41.7%) whereas, providing water at field condition was reported to be the major responsibility of the son or herder (81.2%) as the male children were responsible for herding cattle and other livestock in the area. Majority of the respondents (89.6%) reported that construction of livestock house in the areas was carried out by men family member.
Barn/dairy house cleaning was mainly accomplished by the female members of the household [18].

Gender Issues in Sheep and Goat Value Chain
Value chain development is key to achieve increased production and improved livelihoods of the rural poor, especially women. Value chains offer tremendous opportunities to women through better market linkages and employment opportunities. At the same time, the way these value chains operate can affect women negatively [15]. The distribution of risks and gains along the value chain varies according to the gender of producers, processors and market agents (input suppliers, traders, transporters etc). Creating and sustaining competitive markets require integration of gender components in value chains [17]. Even though women and men are more likely to be involved at different stages of the value chain, areas where women are involved most tend to be invisible despite being critical nodes at which change and upgrading could occur to develop the value chain [5].
Women contribute to small ruminant production by carrying out a number of tasks, such as milking, cleaning, animal shade, harvesting fodder and other dairy related activities. Young girls are very often engaged in the same range of activities and they are more likely than boys to be kept home from school to help their mothers with agricultural tasks including gathering feed and providing water for livestock [12]. Although small ruminants are frequently owned by women, it is often men who are responsible for their disposal and thus in charge of taking decisions related to their sale. Young boys and girls are also frequently responsible for herding and grazing small ruminants; however young boys tend to be more engaged than girls in this specific task [12].
When managing small stock, women tend to face a greater number of challenges, as compared to men, in accessing, maintaining and improving the flocks. Factors such as poor or scarce technical skills in animal care, poor marketing skills, limited access to veterinary and extension services and markets, and limited financial and natural resources tend to limit women's opportunities to access, control and expand their small ruminant stock and production. These factors can also influence women's access to improved exotic breeds. Keeping exotic or cross-bred livestock can be more difficult and usually requires a higher level of technical and veterinary expertise. As a consequence women often only manage and control local breeds which are frequently easier to rear but often far less productive than the improved exotic breeds [12].

Gender Roles in Poultry Production and Marketing
Analysis of household survey data from 5000 households in the highlands of Ethiopia show that, in rural Ethiopia, poultry production and marketing is predominantly female's job. In male-headed households, about 77.7% of the women are engaged in poultry management. Similarly, in female-headed households, about 80.7% of the women are involved in poultry management. On the contrary, only 2.2% and 5.1% of the men in male and female-headed households, respectively, participated in poultry management. The data shows that feeding, vaccinating and housing the birds is a task largely left for women in the household. Similarly, women overwhelmingly dominated poultry selling. About 59.2% and 86.9% of the women in male and female-headed households, respectively, sell poultry. Only about 27% of the men in male-headed households, and about 2.6% of men in the female-headed households are engaged in poultry selling In spite of the large female participation in the selling and management of poultry production in rural Ethiopia, when it comes to controlling the income, women do not have comparable decision-making power. In the male headed households, 11.5% and 30.3% of the men and women, respectively, control the income from poultry, while in 53.7% of the cases, income from poultry is controlled jointly by the husband and wife [12].

Access to and Control of Resources and Benefits Along the Livestock Value Chain
Access and control over assets provide economic security, incentives for taking economic risks that lead to growth, and important economic returns including income. Yet, women in many countries are constrained ownership or control of important resources due to cultural beliefs [20]. Inequality in property rights contributes to women's generally low status and vulnerability to poverty compared with men. Researcher reported that in many African traditions, women and their belongings including livestock that they may have received from their parents or purchased themselves are the property of men [12]. It has also been reported by other researcher that, men have access and control to resources and other benefits than women despite their considerable labour input [20]. Women were found to be excluded from decision making.
Participation in livestock value chain has potential to benefit involved men, women and children in a number of ways like distribution of gains from value chain activities, decision on the use and benefit from recourses, and ownership or management of resources. However, the benefit accrued from participation in the value chain depends on gendered relationship of involved actors at the household. As highlighted, gendered patterns of benefit distribution in the value chain does not always translate into gains to all individuals [8]. In the same vein, non-participation in particular value chain does not equate to a lack of benefit. What matters is not simply the level of income derived from value chain activities, but a combination of factors related to the perception of ownership or management of a particular commodity, the scheduling of payment, and the point of entry into the chain.
Livestock extension, input-delivery and financial services staff are usually dominated by men who are most likely to talk with male family members about, for example, how to improve livestock feeding and housing [12]. Women and girls who carry out dairy work as part of family labour receive the relevant information in most cases indirectly. Information and training that are often held for existing groups, such as dairy keeping associations or in farmer field school groups is not equally accessed as members tend to be composed mainly or purely of men. Apart from unequal access to training between men and women, the studies show that even the participation of poor urban livestock keepers in training courses and field days is very rare [21].
In some parts of the world there are cultural barriers to direct communication between male advisors and women, and as a result, women do not have the same access as men to information that could help increase their work efficiency and productivity [21]. In most African countries women's access to extension services, knowledge, credit and technologies is lower compared to men [1]. Because of changing economic circumstances, women are taking on responsibilities for types of livestock that had traditionally been the realm of men, such as cattle. Therefore, livestock service providers are supposed to notice women's changing roles and give them enough technical, organizational and capacity-building support.
Since value chain development aims at improving the livelihoods of poor families and enhances the potential of women to provide for their families, it is important to understand access to and control of resources and the benefits from various productive assets. Access to and control of resources determines the extent to which women and other marginalized groups can participate in the value chain, their decision making power and potential to directly benefit from participating in the value chain. Research studies have shown that a significant global gender gap exists in asset ownership, control, and decision making power between men and women, and how costs and benefits are shared. Research evidence also shows that women's participation in decisions that affect their livelihoods is still marginal. Hence for women to fully benefit from value chains there must be spaces where they can actively contribute to decisions, raise their voices, have their ideas heard and considered, take part in leadership and decision making. Power and decision making is a key challenge that rural women face.
Review of the reports revealed that the decision to purchase or slaughter live animals was made by men in Abergelle, Yabello and Doyogena, and by both men and women in Atsbi, Horro, Menz and Shinelle. Men selected the animal for slaughter in Atsbi; men and women jointly selected animals in Abergelle, Horro, and Shinelle; and women chose the animals in Yabello and Doyogena. In all sites, choosing an animal to buy in the market was the sole responsibility of men. Decision making on the type of and number of animals to be sold are made by women and men interchangeably in the case of Doyogena.
Buying meat from butchers outside the community, as occurs occasionally in Horro and Menz, was also considered the sole domain of men. In Yabello, the decision to purchase meat from butchers or markets within the community was made by men; in Dire Dawa, this decision was made by women. In both cases, actual selection of the meat was performed by women [22].
The large proportions of large animals are owned by men (82.6%) while only (17.4%) owned by women. Respondents argued that women were considered capable of fully owning poultry and making independent decisions about milk, butter, chickens and eggs because these were resources that could be managed within the household compound. Women, however, thought they were more knowledgeable about issues related to food. Dairy ownership was associated with the division of labor. Male and female household members reported joint ownership of dairy when carrying out complementary roles in raising the livestock. Respondent women in Dire Inchini and Dano cited examples such as husbands being responsible for selling and buying livestock while the children herded and watered the animals and the women gathered grasses and residues to feed the calves kept around the homestead. Both male and female respondents also highlighted that women and children owned small ruminant and poultry [18].
Similar to most of the developing country, in the study area the husband control and decide agricultural resources without the participation of wives. Even though women did not have a right to make a decision, what is surprising from this study is that women are doing a great job which often called triple role (production, reproduction and community management). It is also learnt that most of the husbands from the study area husbands do not consult their wife on the allocation of the produce. Most of the African women have not benefited from investment and trade of Agricultural products because they have limited access to land, credit, transport, etc. In the study area from over all respondents 85.5% of male are decides about selling of cattle and 15.5% of women decides about selling of cattle and 88.1% men decides about labor in put while women decides 11.9% about labor input and 35.1% of husband sell any animals without consulting his wife but he told her. This is because while women's decision making power within households, where most of the decisions about care for household members take place, is known to be lower than that of men, women are the main caretakers of household members (especially children and the aged) in most of the developing countries of the world [18].

Factors Affecting Gender-Related/Women Participation in Livestock Value Chains
Actors make returns from their participation in value chains by exploiting and constructing economic returns, which can arise through scarcity of resources (barriers to entry) [22]. Limiting participation of competitors by control of factors of production creates financial and (human and natural) resource rents (that is, access to these resources on better terms than one's competitors). In other words, people compete for the land, labour, capital and other assets that enable them to participate in, and gain from, functions across value chains. Where men and women have unequal access to capital and property, women tend to participate in value addition activities as employees while men dominate management roles. The processing of livestock commodities often involves equipment that represents considerable capital investment. Women are more likely to manage their own work and income where capital barriers to entry are lower and where physical product transformation involves simple, relatively low cost equipment, such as knives and bowls in fisheries or 'rolling tables' for incense sticks.
Chain-level gender-specific patterns of access to functions are played out through community and societal level norms manifested at the household level. Land tenure, business and property arrangements dictate which household members have access to economic assets. In the developing world the exclusion of women from land ownership is widespread. Land tenure is a leverage point not only into acquiring the physical assets for chain activities but also into accessing chain services. Securing public finance, for example, is impossible without collateral or ownership deeds.
Strong gender differences in literacy rates that often, but not always, disfavour women mean that less educated individuals occupy lower skilled roles in value chains. A lack of education also disempowers individuals at the chain management level, reducing their ability to communicate with buyers and suppliers and limiting their bargaining power. Activities that would take women away from the household and prevent them from performing reproductive and domestic work tend to be performed by men. For example, they do not participate in the production node of capture fisheries, which commonly requires time commitments of anything from multiple hours to several months. Similarly, where livestock production entails movements far from the home it tends to be dominated by men.
At least as important as where and how men and women participate in value chains are the determinants of the extent to which they benefit. As with chain participation the factors that determine what benefits accrue to household members through involvement in economic activities operate both within the household and within the value chain itself. At chain level, the highest returns are enjoyed by individuals who can access the most lucrative functions. More fundamentally, the control of income and expenditure at household level may enable men and women to benefit from economic activities in which they don't directly participate. What this means in practice is that participation does not necessarily produce gains -and also the corollary, that non-participation does not necessarily imply no gain. And because the gender power relations that determine who controls factors of production, outputs and income are governed by context-specific socio-cultural factors, patterns of gain are also highly context specific.
Generally, Synthesis of the results indicates that there are several factors that affect women's full participation in the livestock value chain. The key factors include: 1. Lack of access to labour saving on-farm technologies (on-farm and domestic technologies); they also lack knowledge on better management practices to increase the quality of livestock demanded by buyers and consumers. 2. Social expectations in the community shape beliefs about the type of work that is appropriate for men and women. These social expectations influence both men's and women's pattern of time allocation. Women are affected from putting more time into market-oriented livestock production as they are expected to stay home taking care of household chores. Women are often constrained from active participation along the core function of livestock value chain development because of discriminatory social attitudes towards women. 3. Lack of appropriate credit service and terms of repayment often do not consider the nature of livestock production. The microfinance institutions demand that farmers start repayments immediately after the loan is extended. Farmers are often forced to either borrow from informal lenders or sell household assets to repay the loan, and both women and men farmers were discouraged from using the credit services. In addition, loans were distributed to individuals but each loan was considered part of the group loan. The group is therefore liable as a whole for the repayment of loan. This made individual members feel responsible towards each other's loans and failure of one member to repay jeopardized the entire group's access to future credit. Women have greater difficulty in accessing financial capital. They obtain fewer loans than men which limits their access to other resources important for livestock production and scale of production. 4. Poor access to extension and veterinary services: Men and women are often constrained from improving the quality and quantity of their livestock production because of poor extension and veterinary services. 5. Household chores: Women are constrained from putting more time into market-oriented livestock production because they are expected to take care of household chores, including care of children. 6. Ownership and use of productive assets: Although livestock are traditionally owned by men and women, it was often men who were responsible for their disposal and thus were in charge of slaughtering and taking decisions related to their sale.

Conclusions
Both men and women play a significant role along the stages of livestock value chain in Ethiopia. Women mostly participated in gathering feed and provide feed to the livestock, watering, take care of the sick and young animals, contribute to cleaning the animal shelter, milking and contribute to sale of the livestock products. Men are specifically involved in herding, cutting forage, marketing and taking livestock to health centers. Livestock ownership between men and women is strongly related to social, cultural and economic factors. It also depends on the kind of livestock they raise. Large livestock are owned by men while smaller animals such as goats, sheep and poultry are mostly owned by women. Although small ruminants are often owned by women, habitually it is the men who are responsible for their disposal and thus in charge of making decisions related to their sale. Milking and milk processing was managed by women who had control of the income from milk and milk products. However, not all women have control of the income from the sale of the products. Gender related factors such as poor technical skills in animal care, limited veterinary services, limited access to markets and poor marketing skills, limited access to financial and extension services, high illiteracy levels and social expectations in the community, household shores, less ownership and benefits from the productive assets tend to affect women's participation to livestock value chain. Therefore, to contribute to household security, women should be supported as livestock owners, processors and users of benefits as men for strengthening their decision making power at the household level and also, to reduce poverty, women should be supported economically as well as socially.