The Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS for short) are a set of international guidelines for the assessment, design, implementation, and evaluation of livestock interventions in emergencies. LEGS is based on livelihood objectives that seek to protect and rebuild livestock as key livelihood assets. The LEGS Handbook provides guidance and participatory tools for appropriate and timely response planning, supported by a set of key principles, and focuses on six technical intervention areas: livestock feed, water, veterinary support,
livestock shelter, livestock offtake and provision of livestock.
LEGS Principle 1: Supporting livelihoods-based programming, aims to support the services, markets and systems that livestock keepers need as they recover from emergencies. The new edition of the LEGS Handbook (launched in June 2023) includes enhanced guidance on market-based programming and cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and also cross references the MISMA and MERS. This relates to both actively supporting local market systems, for example through commercial livestock offtake programmes, and ensuring that interventions do not disrupt existing markets, for example through the appropriate sourcing and distribution of livestock feed.
