Animal health service delivery systems in Kenya's marginal areas under market liberalization: a case for community-based animal health workers

This paper reports on the success of a project designed to introduce community-based animal health workers (CBAHWs) to deliver livestock health services in marginal areas. This initiative has involved training community-selected representatives in basic animal health care and livestock production techniques with the objective of supplementing and supporting existing systems for delivering such services to communities in marginal areas. Findings:The study finds that these CBAHWs provide mainly curative health services. However, sustainability continues to be a problem. For trainees to continue actively providing services to livestock keepers, continual professional development through regular refresher training was important. A commitment to work, shown for example through proper record keeping, is likely to help keep trainees in active practice. Years of stock raising experience and formal education of trainees are found to have a positive but not significant effect on their likelihood of remaining in active practice. Total income has a negative but insignificant influence on the likelihood of a CBAHW.s remaining in active practice. CBAHWs provide services to farmers who have fewer resources than do the farmers served by professional veterinarians. In comparing livestock productivity, the average annual live births per mature female (birth ratio) in cattle and goats herds under the care of CBAHWs were significantly higher than those under the care of professional veterinarians. Although the livestock of clients of CBAHWs attained improved fertility, this did not translate into a higher ratio of young stock to females (breeding index) compared with the clients of veterinarians. This suggests that young stock within the CBAHW clientele may suffer from higher mortalities than do stock of the veterinarians. Besides providing clinical services at a fee, CBAHWs also created positive externalities through the participatory learning enjoyed by neighboring livestock keepers who later dispensed with their services. Policy attention is needed to appropriately integrate the activities of CBAHWs within the existing formal animal health delivery system in marginal areas of Kenya. Interventions that improve the professional development of these workers, with emphasis on areas pertaining to care of young stock, would not only promote sustainability of their activities but also improve livestock productivity in marginal areas.