A Path to Prosperity New Directions for African Livestock

2.2.1 Livestock Sector Policy
Livestock sector policy covers a multitude of issues
and there are no studies that compare how effective
livestock policy is, relative to other agricultural
sub-sectors, in supporting poor and small farmers.
A key finding of a 1998 review of best practice in the
livestock sector 13 was that there was little evidence
to show that livestock projects had achieved
sustained benefits for poor livestock keepers.
A few relatively successful projects stood out as
achieving sustainable change. Common features
of these “institutional,” projects were a combination
of community-based approaches, private sector
involvement and the creation of enabling policy
and legislative environments. One response to
studies such as these has been to initiate more
policy focused initiatives, such as FAO’s Pro Poor
Livestock Policy Initiative 14 and AU/IBAR’s Alive
partnership 15 .
In 2004, AU/IBAR reported on a livestock policy
landscape study 16 . Senior policy makers from
eastern Africa were asked to assess policy and
institutional constraints in the livestock sub-sector
as part of an initiative to develop a regional
programme focusing on policy reform and targeted
at poor producers. The IBAR team spoke to
Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Heads of
Livestock Departments and a range of other
stakeholders in five countries. The key findings
from the consultation were as follows:
> The policy-formulation process in all the countries
studied had the following characteristics:
• A strong top-down orientation, with heavy
government influence.
• Inadequate participation of the poor in the
policy-making process.
• Many government functionaries admitted that
they needed knowledge on policy-making
processes.
• Policy makers were not always able to respond
to frequent changes requiring updating or
making of new policies.
> The biggest group of livestock policies were
actually missing or outdated policies.
> Policy monitoring and evaluation mechanisms
were grossly inadequate.
> The study also indicated weak and poorlycoordinated
institutional arrangements for
pro-poor policy formulation and implementation.
> Unfortunately, the livestock policy and institutional
support programme IBAR planned in 2004 was
never funded and many of the problems identified
in 2004 remain key to livestock development
in 2011.
> There was a general lack of proper recognition
of the contribution of the livestock sub-sector to
the sector, national economies and in securing
livelihoods for the poor. The latter is an issue that
continues to cause concern 17 . Causes for this
lack of recognition included past emphasis on
crops and poor information on the role that
livestock play. Lack of useful data is a perennial
problem that has recently been recognised by the
BMGF, who are supporting the World Bank,
working in collaboration with AU/IBAR, ILRI and
FAO, to improve the quality of data on livestock in
Africa to enhance the understanding of the roles
of livestock in poverty reduction 18 .
The Impetus Strategy Paper I Page 13