Livestock Fisheries SC meeting minutes, 23rd Aug 2012.pdf

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Agenda Item 3: Experience with the Zootechnical survey in Kenya • During the June meeting VSF Belgium made a presentation on a Zootechnical tool that was developed in West Africa for monitoring livestock productivity, performance, and collecting baseline information. The presentation in June aimed at gathering views from partners before the tool is applied in east Africa and to assess its potential in South Sudan. • During the August meeting Khang Chol presented the preliminary results of the tool’s application in a survey conducted in arid and semi‐arid lands of northern Kenya in Samburu, Turkana, Pokot, Marsabit, Garissa, Wajir and Mandera counties. The survey was conducted through a consortium of agencies comprising Oxfam GB as the lead NGO, ACTED, VSF‐B, VSF‐ CH, VSF‐Germany, and Project ECHO Lanina II. • Khang reported that the survey methodology comprised the following steps: 1) Sites selection under the guidance of the host organization at local level while target areas within each County were selected based on high number of goats and households that benefitted from the ECHO Lanina II project 2) Sample size calculation based on the number of beneficiaries per location 3) Identification of respondents by the host organization taking into consideration the modalities generated by the consultants. 4) Communities mobilization by the host organization with the involvement of community leadership; taking into consideration gender aspects for fair representation; and informing livestock keepers (LKs) of the requirements to participate in the survey i.e. not having more than 30 goats, and with a good knowledge of the livestock history over the last 1 year. • Khang noted that at the start of the survey it was challenging. This resulted from the fact that the tool was being used for the first time in East Africa and was therefore new to both the host organizations and the communities. The 1 year recall period was also long for some households to effectively remember the history of the flock; and there were variation in number of seasons between semi‐arid and arid. While the survey was planned taking into consideration 4 seasons, some semi‐arid zones had up to 5 identified seasons. The implication of this being that since the survey team used pictorial evidence of the four seasons to collect information from respondents they lacked evidence for the additional season reported in some semi‐arid areas. • Despite the challenges encountered Khang was positive that the tool generated some promising results and it has the potential for application in South Sudan to estimate mortality among goats. He however reiterated that it would require adjustments for application in collecting data about other livestock categories. • He indicated that the preliminary/draft report is not yet ready but will be shared once finalized.
Agenda 4: Livestock health in refugee camps • The influx of refugees from Sudan into Maban County in Upper Nile state together with their possessions has led to livestock concentration around camps. • In August 2012 CESVI conducted an assessment of livestock situation in Yousif Batil refugee camp (for refugees from Blue Nile state) based on random sampling from 88 refugee and 20 host households. The findings were presented to the meeting by Fabrizio Vitale, a Project Coordinator at CESVI for discussions and the way forward. • The assessment identified there are more than 104000 heads of livestock in the camp most of them (92%) owned by refugee households as opposed to 8% by host community. • The assessment identified a number of concerns that include the imbalance between livestock owned by refugees and host community and the consequent competition over resources that would trigger conflicts; high generation of waste that is not properly managed in the camp with possible impacts on water and hygiene conditions; and high livestock mortalities whose carcases are not properly disposed. The assessment estimated that 31,052 heads of livestock died in the last 3 months and there are possibilities of livestock‐human disease transmission since disease control interventions are minimal. • The survey further identified high selling of livestock among host community households compared to those of refugees which may partly signal declining coping strategies. In response, Massimo cautioned against such conclusions especially if not well supported by evidence. He clarified that selling of livestock can only be considered a deteriorating coping strategy if sales are happening against declining prices or deteriorating terms of trade. Otherwise, sales may be driven by favourable market conditions elsewhere. • CESVI further reported that the number of partners undertaking livestock interventions is not adequate considering the livestock population in Maban County. There is urgent need to scale up. • Similar findings had been identified through an assessment by Save the Children in February 2012. More so the February assessment identified high malnutrition rates among children despite high livestock ownership, which pinpoints the need to re‐think of appropriate measures to alleviate the situation. • Massimo informed that while the assessments are raising issues of concern and urgency especially livestock mortalities in camps there is need to ensure the results are well informed by evidence. Before prioritising any response action the technical capacity of the intervening organisation need to be assessed. This is because livestock health is a serious matter that can only be entrusted to qualified veterinarians. Non‐veterinarian organisations should focus more on livestock based livelihood activities, awareness creation, digging of pits to dispose carcasses, and creating awareness on hygienic issues such as meat and milk sourcing and preparation. • In order to respond appropriately the meeting agreed to constitute a committee of expert persons to deliberate on the issues identified by the two assessments (CESVI & SC) and come up with detailed programmatic response actions. • The constituted committee comprising of ACTED, FAO, SC, VSF‐G, and WFP decided to meet on 28 th August to deliberate on response actions and resource needs.
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Livestock Fisheries SC meeting minutes, 23rd Aug 2012.pdf

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