Effectiveness and financial viability of privatised animal health delivery system

This paper reports on a project by FARM Africa which attempted to introduce a dairy goat and animal health care project in Meru district, Kenya, in 1996. The purpose of the project is to increase the productivity of local goats through better management, access to sustainable healthcare and genetic improvement systems, and of local cattle from better access to sustainable healthcare systems. The project had the following components and aims:breeding component: to produce a crossbred goat, which can produce enough milk for the family and has the ability to resist diseases like the local goats in Meru. This is being done by crossbreeding local goats with Toggenburgsanimal health delivery system component:increasing community access to veterinary services and drugs in rural areasestablishing sustainable links between private and public animal health servicesproviding supervision of Animal Health Assistants (AHAs) and Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) by private veterinariansestablishing a sustainable veterinary drug supplyimproving disease surveillance and reporting of outbreaks to the DVS Lessons learnt from the project include:the most affected cadre of service providers are the AHAs and the CAHWs. This is because they directly deal with the most vulnerable group in the communities whose livelihoods are purely smallholder livestock keeping and subsistence farmingmobility is quite important to the vets and AHAs if they are to be effectivediversification reduces vulnerability and spreads overheads over a number of servicesseasonality of disease incidence, where the pattern is regular, can be capitalised on by stocking only necessary drugs during such periods to maximise on the profitsveterinary practices may neccessitate borrowing to meet cash flow deficits especially in situations of drought or other adverse conditionscredit availability to such practices is expensive and therefore there is a need to avail an affordable credit scheme to cushion the practitionerslack of business skills on the part of the practitioners and the ability to assess market needs and subsequently respond to them in a timely manner, has been a major drawback on maximisation of profits at the practicesfarmers are prepared to pay for animal health services. Policy and laws governing such practices, if put in place, would provide a platform for the service to thriveignorance of legal rights among the practitioners is also a major draw backpolicy advocacy has been one of the outcomes of FARM Africa work. It takes a long time, involvement of other stakeholders, a diplomatic approach and one needs to make sure the need for advocacy is real and felt by the communities/beneficiaries[Adapted from the author]