Veterinary services in the Horn of Africa: where are we now?

Abstract

Pastoralists are marginalised in the Horn of Africa and receive inadequate veterinary services. Under economic structural adjustment programmes, public veterinary services became increasingly ineffective and, in response, community-based NGO programmes were established in some pastoral areas. While these programmes were often considered to be effective, with few exceptions they were small in scale, isolated from central government, and based on subsidised systems of drug distribution. Consequently, their sustainability was questionable. Governments now have incentives to improve veterinary services to pastoralists because of new possibilities for increasing livestock exports alongside new concerns about protecting consumers from livestock-related diseases. Current policy and institutional reform is encouraging a greater role for the private sector in service delivery but this is developing slowly, particularly in pastoral areas where future provision is likely to involve public–private partnerships.

Trish Silkin is an anthropologist with more than 20 years of experience in the Horn of Africa. She works as a social development consultant with special interests in social and policy research and analysis, livelihoods, and institutional change. Email: [email protected]

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on a study undertaken by Trish Silkin and Florence Kasirye in 2002, which focused on the impact of the privatisation of veterinary services on pastoralists in the Greater Horn. The study was funded by DFID and supported by CAPE AU/IBAR. The full report (Veterinary Services in the Horn of Africa: Where Are We Now? A Review of Animal Health Policies and Institutions Focussing in Pastoral Areas, August 2002) can be obtained from: Community-based Animal Health and Participatory Epidemiology (CAPE) Unit, AU/IBAR, PO Box 30786, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya. Fax: + 254 (2) 212289; www.cape-ibar.org/

Notes

Trish Silkin is an anthropologist with more than 20 years of experience in the Horn of Africa. She works as a social development consultant with special interests in social and policy research and analysis, livelihoods, and institutional change. Email: [email protected]

The most commonly accepted definition of pastoralists is that they are people who depend mainly on livestock for their livelihoods, rather than on crops or other sources of income. Agro-pastoralists grow crops as well as raising livestock, but for them also livestock have more importance. Typically, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists occupy arid and semi-arid lands and follow regular, cyclical patterns of movement in search of pasture and water for their animals.

The relevant HDI rankings are Eritrea: 159, Ethiopia: 171, Sudan: 143, Kenya: 138, Tanzania: 156, Uganda: 158 (UNDP 2000).

In 1997, for example, the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia, an area of 400,000 km² and 3.5 million people, had less than 5 km of asphalt road.

The figure for Eritrea includes a majority of agro-pastoralists. In common with other countries, Eritrea has seen a marked shift from pure pastoralism to different forms of agro-pastoralism in recent years.

For example, coffee has historically provided at least 60 per cent of Ethiopia's foreign exchange earnings. In 2001, Ethiopia's income from coffee slumped by 50 per cent.

Internal documentation provided by the Federal Ministry of Animal Resources, Government of the Republic of Sudan. Government officials now also routinely bracket livestock with oil as ‘the future wealth of Sudan’.

The new rules are known as the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement of the WTO. They are intended to ensure the safety of imported food products, while preventing consumer interest being used as an excuse for protectionism. The Agreement recognises special compliance difficulties that developing countries may face (Jensen 2002).

Professional veterinary training rarely, if ever, includes pastoral livestock species, such as camel, or their typical diseases.

It should also be noted, however, that many government staff came to enjoy living and working in pastoral areas, and learned to have great respect for pastoralists' skills and knowledge. Several of the more senior staff in veterinary departments in the Horn have served an apprenticeship in pastoral areas.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Trish Silkin *