11. The absolute level of funding here refers to the portion of the domestic recurrent budget which the central government is prepared to allocate to livestock services relative to the demands on that budget from other services particularly other agricultural services. Some of the more important factors determining this policy variable are listed in Figure 1 below.
Fig.1. Absolute Level of Domestic Funding
|
Determinant Factors |
Potential DVS Leverage |
|
- Fund availability from general tax revenue |
no |
|
- Foreign exchange availability and allocation priority |
no |
|
- Livestock's economic contribution & policy makers' awareness of its importance |
strong |
|
- Public health hazards from animal diseases |
strong |
|
- Sector's potential for generating government revenue |
strong |
12. A "no leverage" in this case means that DVS have no or at best only very limited ability to influence a particular factor to increase the level of domestic funding. For example, bringing about increased overall availability of funds for livestock services through increased general taxes is beyond DVS influence because imposing higher general taxes affecting the general public is the prerogative of policy-makers at the highest level. On the other hand, increasing the awareness of high-level policy-makers to an exploitable potential of the sector to raise greater government revenue is within the reach of DVS and thus offers a strong DVS leverage.
