Shaping global veterinary services using an intersectional and gender-driven approach
published on
01/25/2025
written by
Valentyna Sharandak
PVS Pathway Programme Manager in WOAH’s Capacity-Building Department, holds a PhD in Veterinary Microbiology and Virology, and has seven years’ experience in the position of Chief of Unit for the International and European Cooperation Directorate for International Collaboration in the Veterinary Services of Ukraine.
Barbara Alessandrini
Head of WOAH’s Capacity-Building Department, Barbara leads the WOAH capacity-building programme, which includes the PVS Pathway Programme and the Training Platform, promoting innovation in country-led services and in learner-centred training, to empower both institutions and individuals to welcome cultural and operational change, including the One Health approach.
Jennifer Lasley
Senior Programme Coordinator for the PVS Pathway and WHO/IHR Connections in WOAH’s Capacity-Building Department.
At WOAH since 2010, her most recent work consists of the digitalization of the PVS Pathway and the development of the PVS Initial and Follow-up Evaluation Database, where natural language processing and machine learning are used to extract added value and insights from data on the performance of animal health systems globally.
Rahul Srivastava
Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Project Manager in WOAH’s Capacity Building Department, Dr Srivastava is leading efforts to integrate PPPs within the PVS Pathway and promote collaboration with stakeholders globally. He holds a Masters in Veterinary Medicine and an MBA in Agribusiness, with 17 years of experience across public, private, and international development sectors in South Asia and Africa.
Women are integral to animal husbandry and livestock production worldwide, often serving as primary caregivers for livestock and significantly contributing to household economies. In regions such as Africa and Asia, women frequently outnumber men in this sector, undertaking tasks like feeding, milking and general animal care; in India, women constitute about 75% of the labour force in animal husbandry [1]. Despite women’s substantial involvement, their contributions are often under-recognised, and they face limited access to veterinary services, resources and training.
Globally, women are also playing an increasingly important role in veterinary medicine, and their presence in this domain has increased in recent years. However, their representation varies across countries. In the United Kingdom, women constitute 57% of all registered veterinary surgeons and 96.8% of veterinary nurses [2]. In New Zealand, women comprise approximately 63.7% of the veterinary workforce, with a significant proportion of female veterinarians under 40 years of age [3]. In South-East Asia, women make up 70% to 80% of enrolments to veterinary studies in most countries [4]. However, systemic biases persist, including a gender pay gap and under-representation in leadership roles, as seen in the United States of America and the United Kingdom [2,5]. Studies have found that female veterinarians earn less than their male counterparts, with disparities more pronounced among recent graduates and top earners [6].
Addressing these disparities is essential to improving gender balance and empowering women within the livestock and veterinary sectors. Women in veterinary medicine work as practitioners and in research, education and leadership. The participation of women in veterinary medicine contributes to innovative solutions and greater access to animal health and welfare, given that in developing countries, two-thirds of livestock holders are women [7], and their neglected or misunderstood needs can be more effectively addressed through the perspective of women working in the veterinary medicine sector.
Women in the veterinary domain – whether caregivers or practitioners – bring diverse perspectives and skills that enrich the profession, as has been demonstrated in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, domains, which are also experiencing demographic changes, with greater access to education for women and minorities [7]. Networks and mentoring programmes for women in veterinary medicine can support the exchange of this knowledge and experience.
WOAH’s PVS pathway: an inclusive programme?
The Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathway, an independent and in-depth mechanism for monitoring the performance of Veterinary Services(a) developed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), identifies Veterinary Services’ strengths and weaknesses and recommends country-specific solutions for sustainable improvement and investment. The experienced and independent experts selected provide recommendations to WOAH Members(b) in the form of PVS Evaluation Reports.
Considering the crucial role of women in the livestock sector, the PVS Pathway is becoming more inclusive by incorporating gender-disaggregated information during PVS Pathway missions, highlighting areas to strengthen Veterinary Services with a gender-sensitive approach. For instance, by involving women in leadership and decision-making roles, as well as fieldwork, Veterinary Services can become more equitable and effective. Equally, it is important for WOAH to strive for gender balance within its high-level network of expertise, and especially in the PVS Pathway: the diversity of perspectives and skills in WOAH’s expert pool will lead to outcomes that better reflect the diverse needs of WOAH Members and their Veterinary Services.
PVS Experts: the female-to-male ratio through time
WOAH carried out an analysis of gender among PVS Pathway Experts from 2006 to 2023.
PVS: Performance of Veterinary Services; W: women; M: men.
Figure 1. Total number of trained PVS Experts, as assigned to PVS missions, 2006–2023
In the first year of PVS Pathway implementation, nine men (and no women) were chosen as experts to implement PVS Evaluation missions. The trends observed are dependent on demand for PVS Pathway missions and show a peak of PVS activities, and therefore appointment of PVS Experts (Figure 1) to those activities, between 2006 and 2011. Once demand for PVS Evaluations was saturated in the first years of the programme, demand for performance monitoring and engagement continued. However, demand for the latter dipped during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and the number of experts designated was therefore at an all-time low.
A steady increase of female PVS Experts was observed from 2006 to a peak in 2016, progressing from 0% to 43% of PVS Experts designated to missions. This percentage declined over the following seven years (to between 25% and 33%) and rebounded in 2022 to another high in 2023, when, once again, 43% of PVS Experts assigned to missions were women. While over the years there has been a notable and sustained increase in the number of female PVS Experts assigned to PVS activities, due to WOAH’s inclusion of women in PVS training, male PVS Experts continue to outnumber them.
A global snapshot of PVS Expert teams: 2006 to 2023
Figure 2 shows a gender breakdown of PVS Experts by region of mission implementation. In missions occurring in Asia and the Pacific, 92% of PVS Experts were men and only 8% were women. In Africa, 88% of PVS Experts were men. All PVS Experts assigned to missions occurring in the Middle East region were men. In Europe and the Americas, 79% and 77% of PVS Experts assigned to missions were men, respectively.
Figure 2. PVS Experts who have conducted at least one PVS mission, by region and gender (2006-2023)
Since 2023, WOAH has made efforts to accommodate the participation of women in expert teams by considering the obstacles preventing acceptance, such as childcare and gender bias in the field. However, this analysis shows that gender disparity in the PVS Expert Pool persists.
Building an expert pool: looking beyond gender
Gender is not the only criterion to consider, however, as intersectionality is critical to ensure a diverse expert pool and well-rounded expertise. The PVS Expert Pool requires diverse perspectives and points of view, so other criteria such as language, subject-matter expertise, region of origin, age and experience are essential considerations for the sustainability of the PVS Pathway.
In response to this, WOAH is developing an Expert Management System for the PVS Pathway. The Expert Management System will enable: i) open calls for experts and expertise to integrate and renew the PVS Expert Pool, ii) identification of large numbers of candidates for training in PVS methodologies based on competency and aptitude, iii) verification of competency maintenance over time, and iv) more precise and efficient matching of PVS Experts to needs and activities. These mechanisms are intended to ensure transparency and fairness across numerous criteria and areas of need, thus preventing gatekeeping(c) based on subjective criteria and increasing access to opportunities for women and other minorities to exercise and gain international experience and expertise in the veterinary domain.
A gender study: what did WOAH learn?
In 2023, WOAH conducted a study entitled ‘WOAH’s PVS Pathway: taking sustainable account of gender issues in the Veterinary Services’, in line with the Organisation’s 7th Strategic Plan principles related to the value of diversity, equality and inclusion [8].
The specific objectives of the study were to analyse the extent to which gender is considered in the PVS Pathway from a methodological point of view and to propose recommendations for the PVS Pathway’s methodologies and guidelines to promote greater equity in the implementation of the PVS Pathway.
The recommendations of the study covered different levels of intervention. Firstly, the study suggested that WOAH’s management and governance bodies take strong leadership on gender mainstreaming. Secondly, the study recommended that WOAH’s Capacity Building Department, in charge of the PVS Pathway, focus on three key aspects: enhance the skills of PVS Experts and WOAH staff on gender issues, continue to promote a diverse Pool of PVS Experts, and adapt the PVS Pathway tools and manuals. And finally, the study suggested that WOAH’s Members, Delegates and Veterinary Services build the capacities of national staff to consider gender issues and mainstreaming in their activities and policies.
Gender, WOAH and PVS: what’s next?
WOAH is currently working on applying the recommendations to the PVS Pathway by reviewing the manuals and guidelines for Experts when conducting missions and will start piloting the inclusion of gender issues in its methodologies and activities in PVS Evaluation missions in 2025.
Promoting and improving the engagement of women in PVS activities will bring greater diversity, expertise and effectiveness in implementing PVS initiatives in the long run.
Key terms explained
(a) According to the definition provided by the WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code (Terrestrial Code), Veterinary Services means the combination of governmental and non-governmental individuals and organisations that perform activities to implement the standards of the Terrestrial Code [9].
(b) The World Assembly of 183 Delegates is WOAH’s highest authority, comprising the Delegates of all 183 Members and meeting at least once a year [10,11].
(c) Gatekeeping is the practice of controlling access to information, advanced levels of study, elite sections of society, etc. It is also the activity of trying to control who gets particular resources, power or opportunities and who does not.
References
[1] Sah U, Joshi K, Dubey SK. Agriculture, livestock production and aquaculture. Cham (Switzerland): Springer; 2022. Gender issues in farming: challenging socially embedded positions in agrarian context; p. 77-98. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93258-9_5
[2] Improve Veterinary Education. The role of women veterinarians in shaping the future of the profession. Swindon (United Kingdom): Improve International; 2024. Available at: https://www.veterinary-practice.com/article/the-role-of-women-veterinarians-in-shaping-the-future-of-the-profession (accessed on 6 January 2025).
[3] Veterinary Council of New Zealand. New Zealand veterinary workforce report (2022-23). Wellington: Veterinary Council of New Zealand; 2024. 30 p. Available at: https://www.vetcouncil.org.nz/common/Uploaded%20files/Web/Publications/Workforce%20Analysis/New%20Zealand%20Veterinary%20Workforce%20Report%202022-23.pdf (accessed on 6 January 2025).
[4] Kochkina O. Gender assessment of veterinary services in South-East Asia. Paris (France): World Organisation for Animal Heath; 2023. 46 p. Published with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. Available at: https://rr-asia.woah.org/app/uploads/2023/07/woah-gender-assessment-report.pdf (accessed on 6 January 2025).
[5] Hopkins C. The state of women in veterinary medicine – according to the data. Lakewood (United States of America): American Animal Hospital Association; 2024. Available at: https://www.aaha.org/newstat/publications/charts-the-state-of-women-in-vet-med (accessed on 6 January 2025).
[6]Wuest P. Assessing the gender pay gap in veterinary medicine. Today’s Vet. Pract. 2021:11(5);10-16. Available at: https://todaysveterinarypractice.com/diversity-equity-inclusion/assessing-the-gender-pay-gap-in-veterinary-medicine (accessed on 6 January 2025).
[7] Tarawali S. Why women are essential in livestock development – and why livestock are essential in women’s lives. International Livestock Research Institute; 2022. Available at: https://www.ilri.org/knowledge/stories/why-women-are-essential-livestock-development-and-why-livestock-are-essential (accessed on 6 January 2024).
[8] World Organisation for Animal Health. Seventh Strategic Plan of the OIE. World Organisation for Animal Health; 2021. Available at: https://bulletin.woah.org/?officiel=09-6-2-2021-1_7th-strategic-plan (accessed on 8 January 2025).
[9] World Organisation for Animal Health. Terrestrial Animal Health Code. World Organisation for Animal Health; 2024. Available at: https://www.woah.org/en/what-we-do/standards/codes-and-manuals/terrestrial-code-online-access/ (accessed on 14 January 2025).
[10] World Organisation for Animal Health. World Assembly. World Organisation for Animal Health; 2025. Available at: https://www.woah.org/en/who-we-are/structure/world-assembly/ (accessed on 16 January 2025).
[11] World Organisation for Animal Health. Members. World Organisation for Animal Health; 2025. Available at https://www.woah.org/en/who-we-are/members/ (accessed on 16 January 2025). Figure 2. PVS Experts who have conducted at least one PVS mission, by region and gender (2006-2023) .
Cover image copyright: ©Getty Images/simonkr
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