Investigating socio-economic metrics of low-income families utilising working equids in Colombia

An ESRC funded project was initiated in October 2018 working with CES Universidad in Medellin, Colombia, alongside World Horse Welfare, a UK charity working in a number of overseas countries. The project seeks to identify the role of working equids on the families that are dependent on them. Preliminary cross-sectional data showed that two thirds of owners fell into the internationally recognised definition of poverty of less than $1.90 per day income- and 48% were in extreme poverty - less than $1.25 per day income. CES Universidad have been instrumental in the development of the project by recruiting post-doctoral researchers for data collection. The next stages of the project are to develop strategic interventions focussing on the welfare of working equids in order to increase their productivity and reduce the impact of disease on these families: 77% of families lacked the financial resilience to replace their equid if it were unable to work.