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Emergency animal health support to prevent the occurrence and spread of livestock diseases in drought affected woredas in Afar region

Tags
Countries Ethiopia
Start date 31/12/2005
End date 22/01/2008
Status Completed
Donor Belgium
Recipient / Target Areas Ethiopia
Budget 658 218 USD
Project Code OSRO/ETH/502/BEL
Objective / Goal
Pastoralists and Agro-Pastoralists in 15 Woredas in Afar National Regional State have increased capacity to withstand external shocks and regional authorities have the means to identify and deal with animal disease outbreaks.
Beneficiaries 331 361
Activities

The project’s specific objectives were to:

  • ensure there were no occurrences of economically harmful livestock epidemics in the 15 selected woredas of Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) for the period to the end of 2006;
  • provide public animal health services in the region with the capacity to identify and assist in the control and spread of diseases in the future;
  • increase animal productivity by 20 percent during 2006; and
  • reduce livestock mortality and morbidity from disease by 40 percent.
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Although the project was successfully implemented in all the targeted woredas of the three regions, there were some key challenges encountered, including:

  • Regional officials, particularly in Afar, were constrained by a shortage of vehicles and inadequate operational funding to effectively execute the emergency health campaigns.
  • Timely resource mobilization at NGO and Government levels, as well as coordinating jointly arranged campaigns, was challenging.
  • There were delays in the settlement of advances from Afar and Somali Regions.
  • Proper targeting of livestock owned by the poorest groups was difficult, particularly in Afder and Liben Zones of  Somali National Regional State (SNRS), mainly as a result of a lack of strong commitment on the part of some of the field operating teams to create timely  awareness among the communities about the emergency support and approaches as clearly indicated in the LoA. Owing to resource limitations, no emergency intervention can target the entire population in disaster-affected areas and focusing on the most vulnerable group is therefore necessary.
  • There was a shortage of time for conducting the health campaign.