Module 1 stressed the need to identify the most important policy issues on which to concentrate. Module 2 provides guidance on how this can be done. Every African country has, to some extent, its own particular problems and priorities. Nevertheless, there is sufficient similarity amongst them to make it possible and useful to draw up common principles for prioritisation.
The simple principle for prioritisation is that one should concentrate on those issues which are inherently most important and where changes in policy are likely to have the most effect. In the end, selecting particular policy issues to concentrate on must be a matter of judgement rather than a wholly objective calculation from facts. Nevertheless, exercising judgement will be less arbitrary and more efficient if the factual groundwork has first been well done. Essentially, this is a matter of knowing one's livestock sector, particularly in terms of its current functions, its future roles, how well it will perform without policy change and the scope for policy change.
For any particular country, we can tackle this in a straightforward way by systematically asking:
· What function(s) is the livestock sector currently serving, and are there major functional differences among regions, ethnic groups or social and economic classes?· What objectives is the livestock sector expected to achieve in the future? Are there major incompatibilities between present functions and future objectives or among the objectives of different interest groups, e.g. government and pastoralists?
· How well is the livestock sector performing in terms of its present functions or objectives?
· If performance is already, or is likely to prove, inadequate, what alternative policy instruments are available to improve it?
It is not possible to formulate just one single rule or procedure for deciding whether a particular issue is more important than another; but by asking and answering the questions set out above, the scope for disagreement or uncertainty about relative importance can be reduced. In doing so, one can add greatly to the clarity of the debate about policies. For example, a discussion about the relative priority to be given to milk or beef production will be much better focused if all parties know in which regions of the country the growth of milk output in recent years has outstripped beef production, and vice versa.
