Where there is no data: participatory approaches to veterinary epidemiology in pastoral areas of the Horn of Africa

This paper provides an overview of recent experiences with the use of participatory approaches and methods to understand livestock diseases in pastoral areas. These experiences include the emergence of participatory epidemiology as a distinct branch of veterinary epidemiology, and most recently, studies on the validity and reliability of participatory methods. The paper discusses how participatory assessment can compliment conventional systems of veterinary inquiry and outlines plans to integrate participatory epidemiology into national veterinary epidemiology units. The authors argue that participatory approaches to epidemiology based on rapid rural appraisal are a natural extension of the veterinary diagnostic process. As such they are useful in overcoming the constraints of conventional quantitative epidemiological approaches which can prove difficult in pastoral areas characterised by their mobile human populations, limited modern infrastructure and insecurity.The principles of participatory epidemiology are defined:assessment of professional and cultural biases willingness to learn from local peoplerespect for local knowledge and culturethe use of combined methods and triangulation including a wide range of interviewing, scoring, ranking, and visualisation methods. The use of key informants known to possess special livestock knowledge and skillsthe generation of information that can be verified with communities and leads to agreement on appropriate actionflexibility, adaptation and development - methodological adaptation is encouraged.And some of the most common uses of participatory epidemiology in pastoral areas are outlined:Animal health surveys, needs assessments and action plansMonitoring, impact assessment and evaluationEthnoveterinary studiesParticipatory disease searchingParticipatory researchDisease modellingThe authors look at the reliability and validity of participatory methods for veterinary epidemiology drawing on a number of field studies carried out in East Africa and designed to compare data derived from participatory and objective assessment. Research findings showed that participatory methods produced reliable and valid information when used with pastoral informants but also highlighted the limitations of the comparative participatory-verses-objective methodology.Finally the paper discusses some of the problems and dangers associated with participatory approaches which are identified principally as:negative attitudeslack of training resourcesa misunderstanding amongst livestock health workers as to what constitutes participatory methods the danger that the use of standardised participatory approaches may lead to a fixation on methods at the expense of results