Supporting livestock-centred livelihoods

What can NGOs do?

As donors increasingly favour direct budget support to deliver aid programmes, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have an important role to play. They not only support grassroots innovations in the livestock sector, but can also use lessons from these to influence national policies.

NGOs can support governments and donors to develop strategies that combine relief and development objectives. For example, NGOs can identify how relief interventions following a crisis can undermine the sustainability of longer-term development programmes. Oxfam's work in Turkana district, northern Kenya, is seeking new ways to integrate relief and development. The long-term development objective is to strengthen the resilience of livelihoods, but Oxfam is including contingency plans to cope with sudden shocks, such as drought.

Livestock keepers living in areas with poorly developed markets are often unable to access technical advice. In Kenya in the 1980s and 1990s, a range of international NGOs developed a core group of community animal health workers to address the gap in veterinary services. By training local people to deliver some basic treatments, they successfully initiated a small-scale service that focused on rural livestock keepers excluded from mainstream support.

While these practical interventions frequently improve the health and management of livestock, it is just as important to create favourable policies so that these schemes can thrive. NGOs, with their intimate knowledge of rural issues, are well placed to represent 'voiceless' livestock keepers in policymaking decisions. For instance, in Tanzania, in the early 2000s, international and national NGOs played a key role during national policy and legislative review meetings convened by the Ministry of Water and Livestock Development. This led to the government broadening the range of people and organisations that could deliver primary veterinary services.

Alastair Bradstock
FARM-Africa, Clifford's Inn, Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1BZ, UK
info@farmafrica.org.uk

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