VETWORK UK

COMMUNITY-BASED ANIMAL HEALTH CARE IN SOMALI AREAS OF AFRICA:

This review is based on the question AAre community-based animal health systems a realistic option for improving primary veterinary services in Somalia?@ This question has arisen due to positive experiences with community-based animal health in remote, pastoral areas of eastern Africa. Lessons from southern Sudan indicate that well-coordinated, large-scale community animal health worker (CAHW) systems can form the basis for improved service delivery in conflict zones. On a smaller scale, reviews of CAHW projects in dryland areas of Kenya demonstrate substantial cost-benefit through the prevention or treatment of a few important livestock diseases. In some areas, such as the Afar region of Ethiopia, CAHWs have played an essential role in rinderpest eradication. To varying degrees, these areas were characterised by limited government veterinary services, civil disorder and logistical problems related to large systems boundaries and poor infrastructure. These constraints are also highly relevant to the current situation in Somalia/Somaliland.

This review collated a number of experiences related to CAHW systems in Somali areas which indicated that community-based approaches are an appropriate way of improving basic veterinary services for pastoral communities. These experiences show that:

• within Somali pastoral communities generally, there is a high demand for animal health services. These communities are characterised by well developed indigenous institutions and livestock knowledge, very strong traditional social support mechanisms and willingness to pay for private services.
• the Somali pastoral economy is closely linked to an active livestock export trade and the market orientation of livestock production systems is increasing.
• there are many useful lessons arising from projects such as,

In summary, CAHW systems appear to be highly relevant to Somalia/Somaliland. Private veterinary activities are already self-sustaining in urban centres and ports, and there are opportunities to work with the private sector to expand basic services into pastoral areas. Such initiatives might build on both the previous veterinary privatisation programme supported by the European Union and the experience of PARC-VAC in community-based animal health systems. Lessons learned from CAHW projects in other areas indicate that in the absence of official regulation, ineffective or dishonest CAHWs are not tolerated by the communities who select them and pay their incentives. Somali herders want good quality medicines for their animals, they want to know how to use the medicines properly and they pay for services which they consider to be valuable. These conditions very much favour the establishment of small-scale, pilot CAHW systems by PARC-VAC in Somalia in order to test ways of working with local partners.

Some specific recommendations are as follows:

• Identification of local partners. The most useful local partners for the implementation of CAHW systems in Somalia are probably private veterinarians and associated traders who have already taken the initiative to establish associations, pharmacies or clinics, and who might view CAHWs as a mechanism for expanding their businesses into pastoral areas. Indigenous or international NGOs with long-term experience of working in Somali areas and institutional commitment to participatory, community-based approaches should also be considered as implementing partners.
• Inclusion of key stakeholders. In addition to working with livestock keepers and veterinarians, PARC-VAC will also need to ensure that stakeholders such as influential Somali traders, elders and military leaders are consulted. In some cases, a business person who is already supplying drugs to veterinarians might be willing to invest in CAHW systems if PARC-VAC can provide technical support. Stakeholder analysis might be usefully applied in Somalia.
• Experience of Somali veterinarians in private and community-based animal health systems.

• Sharing resource inputs. As a general rule, PARC-VAC should limit it's inputs to training, technical advice, monitoring, coordination, and possibly vaccine supply. Material inputs for clinical animal health services such as equipment and drugs should be avoided as ideally, these should be provided by Somali veterinarians and traders in partnership with community-level forums.
• Roles of CAHWs in vaccination. Given the successful use of CAHWs in rinderpest control in other areas, particularly southern Sudan, there seems to be no reason why Somali CAHWs could not handle heat-stable rinderpest vaccine under similar arrangements to those used in other countries.
• Scope of operations and time scales. It is notable that many of the positive experiences of CAHW systems outlined in this review are all associated with NGOs who have long-term experience of participatory development in Somali areas. In view of PARC-VAC's limited experience in Somalia, a small-scale pilot approach over a 3 year period is probably appropriate.
• A role for Agovernment@ in Somalia/Somaliland. Ideally, CAHW systems should be linked to official veterinary services for certification, quality control and disease surveillance. In a climate of veterinary service reform in the Horn of Africa, PARC-VAC will need to consider how future public sector services in Somalia/Somaliland might develop and the roles which they might usefully fulfil. In this respect, the trend towards a regulatory, epidemiology and epidemic disease control function which is evident in other countries should be promoted in Somalia/Somaliland.

The review document is 60 pages in length. Hard copies and shortened (no illustrations) versions are available from:

Tim Leyland, PARC-VAC Project, OAU/IBAR, PO Box 30786, Nairobi, Kenya. fax: +254 2 253680; e-mail: parcvac@iconnect.co.ke