AGA NEWS
REGIONAL LIVESTOCK POLICY INITIATIVE LAUNCHED
Livestock contribute nearly 60% of the combined agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the IGAD member states, ranging from 20% in Uganda to nearly 90% in Somalia, and are an important component of the livelihoods of an estimated 40 million poor in the region. Livestock provide food and income, a means of diversifying risk and increasing assets. Draught power, fuel, manure and transport all contribute significantly to farm productivity and the consumption of animal protein improves human health and ability to work.
Projections for the Horn of Africa show a significant increase in the demand for livestock products over the next 30 years, mostly as a result of population increase, offering opportunities to improve the incomes and livelihoods of the livestock-dependent poor. However, linking small-scale livestock producers to these expanding markets will require significant policy shifts both at national and regional levels. This is particularly so in a changing economic environment, with tendencies towards decentralisation, withdrawal of government services, deregulation, and increasing privatization.
These trends present real opportunities for poor livestock owners, but also present challenges: Will the poor be crowded out in the race to satisfy growing demand for livestock products? Will cutbacks in public livestock services threaten small-scale producers who cannot afford private suppliers?
Will poorly developed access rights to land and water become insurmountable barriers to improving livestock production? Given an enabling policy and institutional environment, these challenges can be overcome, but livestock policies in the region tend to be based on poor levels of information and analysis, and are generally formulated without participation from key stakeholders, particularly among the poor and more marginalised groups.
There is a general need to build capacity for policy formulation; to develop information systems and tools for policy analysis; to raise awareness of the role of livestock in meeting development objectives; and to advocate mechanisms whereby the more marginalised stakeholders can have their concerns fairly addressed in the policy debate.
It is to address these issues that the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has joined forces with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), with the financial support of the European Commission (EC), to establish IGAD's Livestock Policy Initiative, with the objective to enhance the contribution of the livestock sector to sustainable food security and poverty reduction in the IGAD region.
The initiative will align itself closely with the core outputs of IGAD's wider programmes on policy harmonisation, agriculture and the environment and, through involvement of member states, will link directly to national programmes.
Activities will be coordinated with appropriate institutions and initiatives involved in agricultural development in Africa, in particular the African Union’s Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU/IBAR), NEPAD-CAADP II and the ALive (African Livestock) partnership, and the Initiative will collaborate with national agricultural research centres, and with regional and international research organizations such the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), and the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), respectively, and will forge mutually beneficial partnerships with multi- and bi-lateral agencies and with Non-Government Organisations (NGOs).