Livestock knowledge management hub in Africa

The livestock sector is a key driver of agricultural GDP across Africa, particularly in beef and dairy production, directly supporting rural livelihoods, nutrition, and income generation. Despite massive investments from governments, development partners, research institutions, and private stakeholders, including smallholder farmers, a persistent challenge remains: the fragmentation and short-lived nature of livestock sector knowledge. Donor-funded projects—while instrumental in generating research, training materials, and policy recommendations—often operate within limited timelines and geographic scopes. Consequently, valuable insights and other learnings, once the project concludes, frequently vanish from public access thereby restricting long-term sectoral growth.

The need for a sustainable knowledge repository was first addressed by Cowsoko, an online livestock marketplace developed in 2014 by Cellfam Kenya. Recognising the need for long-term agricultural knowledge resources, Cowsoko began by hosting materials from the Kenya Market-led Dairy Programme (KMDP), implemented by SNV and funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Although KMDP closed in 2019, the repository was maintained on the Cowsoko platform and continues to attract 1.2 million annual visitors from multiple countries across Africa.

Building on this success and with support from SNV’s Integrated & Climate Smart Innovations for Agro-Pastoralist Economies and Landscapes in Kenya’s ASALs project (ICSIAPL), Livestock Africa was designed to consolidate and preserve livestock-related knowledge resources from multiple projects, ensuring they remain accessible after projects end. Unlike conventional project websites that expire with (donor) funding coming to a halt, Livestock Africa operates on a sustainable subscription model, where organisations pay a one-time fee for uploading and an annual maintenance cost, guaranteeing long-term availability of uploaded information, if the owner so wishes.

Livestock Africa functions as an open-access repository, hosting a variety of knowledge resources, including research reports, training manuals, instructional videos, webinar recordings and policy briefs. The platform supports 18 languages, ensuring accessibility for diverse linguistic groups across Africa and beyond. Its back-end infrastructure ensures seamless uploads, categorisation and retrieval of documents, with a user-friendly interface optimized for desktop and smartphone access.

To maintain operational efficiency, Livestock Africa provides 24/7 technical support, including 10 hours of phone assistance and 14 hours of online troubleshooting daily. The platform also integrates mobile money payment options, facilitating easy transactions for organizations in low-connectivity regions.

For farmers and other stakeholders in the livestock sector, the platform offers free, on-demand access to best practices, market trends, and training resources. Also, it helps bridge the gap between research and field application. Development organisations benefit from extended project visibility, as Livestock Africa ensures materials remain accessible long after funding ceases. Governments and policymakers can utilise the platform’s aggregated data to inform livestock sector policies and strategies. At the same time, researchers and students can also leverage the platform’s repository for compiling papers and supporting them in their studies or to place their research papers on the platform.

Livestock Africa’s financial model is designed for independence, relying on institutional subscriptions rather than donor dependency. Organisations hosting multiple projects receive discounted rates, incentivising broader participation. This approach ensures the platform’s future promotes collaboration, creating a central knowledge hub for African ruminant livestock development.