Why I Believe Africa Deserves Greater Strategic Attention in Animal Welfare

By Aurelia Adhiambo @ 2026-06-21T10:32 (+50)

Introduction:

I have been thinking about the recent conversations here on the future of global development philanthropy, especially the case for next-generation philanthropy to be more focused on emerging regions and locally led initiatives. This made me think about a similar animal welfare question: if Africa is going to be an increasingly prominent participant in designing future food systems, what does it mean for animal welfare funding? I intend to lend an African voice to the conversation in this piece.

To provide context, I’ve spent the past 4.5 years advising the Effective Altruism Animal Welfare Fund and working closely with animal welfare organizations across Africa through my work for the Open Wing Alliance (where I work as the Senior Africa Lead), as well as working with other funders in the movement. These experiences have increasingly convinced me that Africa needs much more strategic attention in the conversations about the future of animal welfare.

My argument is not mainly about representation or fairness. It is based on the assertion that Africa is becoming a key continent where the future structure of animal agriculture is still being shaped. If that is the case, it will have an impact on how we approach institutional growth, finance, research, and movement building in the following decades.

The Question We Should Be Asking:

Discussions about animal welfare funding understandably focus on current suffering. However, we should also consider future suffering by focusing on where animal agriculture is likely to expand and intensify, where systems are still being shaped. This includes looking at where animal agriculture is projected to grow most quickly, where production systems are likely to intensify, where industry norms and regulatory frameworks are still emerging, and where interventions can influence systems before they become deeply ingrained.

These questions matter because some of the biggest impacts aren’t always from addressing the biggest problems today. Instead, they are initiatives that alter the way future problems unfold.

Viewed through this lens, I believe Africa deserves consideration.

Africa Is Entering a Period of Transformation:

One of the biggest demographic and economic shifts in the world is taking place in Africa. United Nations estimations suggest the continent’s population will increase from an estimated 1.5 billion presently to 2.5 billion by 2050. By the end of this century, Africa will account for nearly 40% of the world's population.

This population growth is occurring alongside rising urbanization, increasing incomes, and changing consumption patterns. Governments, development organizations, and agricultural stakeholders are increasingly promoting eggs, meat, dairy, and other animal-source foods as essential instruments for improving nutrition, food security, and economic prosperity. For example, the FAO has emphasized the relevance of these foods in combating hunger in underdeveloped regions of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa.

Animal agriculture will certainly intensify and expand with demand. The sub-Saharan Africa projection for livestock production is an increase of roughly 29% by 2034. “There’s a lot of this expansion in poultry, cattle, and dairy,” the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2025-2034 states.

Taken together, these trends indicate not only an enormous increase in animal agriculture but also a wider systemic change, where many of the institutions, markets, and regulatory systems that influence that growth are still being formed.

We are at a critical juncture:

Many African countries are still undergoing major transitions in their food systems, unlike regions where industrial animal agriculture is already well established. Corporate practices are changing, consumer expectations are changing, supplier chains are shifting, and, in many cases, regulatory frameworks are lacking.

This is an important opportunity. Animal welfare advocates are not just focusing on fixing current systems, but they might also have an opportunity to influence the development of these systems in the first place.

If Africa is entering a period of rapid agricultural transformation, the decisions we make now may influence animal welfare outcomes for decades to come. For those thinking seriously about the future of animal welfare, that possibility alone should warrant much closer attention.

Implications for Animal Welfare Funders:

Following the above, I see three broad implications for funders and ecosystem builders working on farmed animal welfare in Africa: strengthening the research pipeline, investing in organizations and leadership, and improving funding resilience.

1. Strengthening the Research Pipeline

Although there has been a growing body of scientific work on agricultural and food systems in Africa, many areas of farmed animal welfare remain little understood. There is a lack of empirical knowledge on a variety of features of farmed animal welfare conditions across production systems, industry trajectories, importation dynamics driving the sector, corporate practices, consumer attitudes, and the effectiveness of various solutions.

Investing in local researchers, research institutions, and cooperation with EA-aligned organizations to expand the research pipeline could assist in producing evidence needed to inform better decision-making and promote more targeted initiatives.

2. Investing in African Advocacy Organizations and Leaders

It takes good leaders and good organizations to make good movements. Finance is paramount. However, the reality is that many African-led, African-founded organizations are operating with substantial structural constraints, including limited access to ongoing funding, mentorship, and technical support.

Encouragingly, work in this direction is already beginning to appear. A modest example of this growing endeavor is the recently launched African Food Ecosystem Series, a training program to empower early-stage startups and small teams working across food systems in Africa. I feel there’s a lot of space for more investment in leadership development and movement infrastructure across the continent.

3. Improving Funding Resilience

Over the years of doing this work, I have encountered several African-led and African-founded organizations doing high-impact work under conditions of persistent funding uncertainty. Many of these organizations operate with either no funding or only short-term, often one-year grants, meaning even moderately supported groups spend significant time and energy planning around the uncertainty of funding beyond the next cycle. As an example, we can do better by increasing the funding timelines to multi-year grant cycles.

Conclusion

As I conclude, I am not saying that Africa needs attention because it is underrepresented. Rather, I believe that the continent's growing importance to the future of animal agriculture should make it increasingly difficult to ignore. If that view is correct, then some of the most valuable investments we can make today may lie less in scaling existing interventions alone and more in shaping the institutional and market conditions that will determine the scale and distribution of future animal suffering.

That is why I believe Africa needs a lot more strategic focus in the global animal welfare movement.

I appreciate comments, critiques, and other points of view. I can also be reached at adhiamboaurelia049@gmail.com

Disclaimer: I employed Grammarly (AI) as an editorial assistant to help polish the flow, language, and grammar of this post. The write-up ideas, arguments, recommendations, and overall perspective are my own.