Smallholder farmers in Uganda (photo credit: John Recha/CCAFS).

How do men and women livestock keepers understand or perceive resource ownership? What implications have these perceptions on food security in smallholder settings? These questions formed the basis of a study in three value chain countries in which the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish is working.

Resource ownership provides a means of empowerment for smallholder households and productive resources are essential to the livelihoods and food security of the world’s rural poor. Further, gender-equal ownership of resources is considered key to increasing agricultural productivity, equity and food security. For example, this brief notes that ownership of assets increases the bargaining power of women and their authority within the household and the community. However, there has not been much research about local understandings of ownership particularly in the Global South and research is also lacking on how concepts of ownership affect food…