Monitoring & Learning

Through our monitoring and learning (ML) service, SEBI-Livestock supports the Gates Foundation’s Livestock and Aquaculture Pillar to track delivery of interventions along the value chain, measure impacts, and make evidence-based investment decisions. To create a holistic picture, we curate and analyse data at two different levels:

At the national level, to provide the country-specific livestock and aquaculture context for investment-making and impact monitoring
At an investment portfolio level, to show how the Gates Foundation is contributing to sector-level change.

National level insights

Understanding the country context is important to:

Identify national priorities within the livestock and aquaculture sectors;
Quantify the gap between current production trajectories and official country targets;
Demonstrate where external investment is most critical to bridge these gaps;
Track evidence of broader sectoral change; and
Monitor sector evolution to ensure investments remain relevant

SEBI-L draws data together from diverse sources — including country strategy documents, national livestock census reports and global databases like FAOSTAT — to populate comprehensive country-level dashboards used by the Gates Foundation for decision-making and advocacy.

Where possible, we adapt these dashboards for public use and make them available on our websites:

Explore livestock sector statistics through our products

Investment level insights

SEBI-Livestock synthesises data from the Foundations’ Livestock and Aquaculture investments to track performance and develop timely insights that drive strategic decision making. Our approach ensures that individual project data contributes to a coherent picture of portfolio-wide impact.

Early-Stage Data Alignment: We engage with grant holders (grantees) at the outset of the investment cycle to define key metrics. This ensures that collected data is standardised, high-quality, and ready for aggregation, providing a robust evidence base for impact tracking.
Unified Monitoring Frameworks: By collaborating with grantees to develop aligned Theories of change and results frameworks, we ensure consistency across the Pillar. This alignment allows for the direct comparison of progress and the identification of cross-cutting successes and challenges.
Portfolio-Level Aggregation: We establish secure data links with grantees to curate information from multiple sources. This enables the visualisation of portfolio achievements at the commodity level, revealing how investments together are driving sector-level change.
Collaborative Insight Generation: Through continuous partnership with grantees, we analyse emerging data to extract actionable insights. These findings inform both grantee implementation strategies and the Foundation’s broader investment plans.
Sustainability and Transition Planning: For select investments, we monitor post-funding sustainability. This involves assessing “pump-priming” effects and evaluating how projects have created enabling environments for sustained growth. This can support the transition to long-term, self-sufficient operations after the investment period ends.