Livestock services, and in particular, clinical veterinary services, were among the first rural services targeted for privatisation under structural adjustment programmes, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. As clear “private goods”, and as most livestock keepers seemed to be prepared to pay for them, policy-makers regarded them as an easy target. The relatively few veterinarians in most Sub-Saharan countries, most employed by the government, however proved very reluctant to move into private practice. At around the same time, many NGOs, and some government departments established very successful small-scale, community-based animal health programmes, where trained livestock keepers, provided clinical veterinary services, for a fee, to their neighbours. They have different names in different parts of the country. In Meru District they are known as Wasaidizi wa Mifugo (Helpers of Livestock). The most commonly used english term for them is Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs).

The Veterinary Surgeons Act in Kenya prohibits anyone except registered vets from providing veterinary services, and most vets were strongly opposed to these programmes, feeling that they undermined the profession, and created unwelcome competition for the privatisation process, especially in the high-potential parts of the country. Government vets, however, in remote arid and semi-arid areas saw CAHWs as the only way to provide any kind of service among livestock keepers spread thinly over vast areas. But despite increasingly convincing evidence of their effectiveness, the government was not prepared to take on the profession and change the policies and legislation to promote the expansion of paravet programmes, but nor were they prepared to stop them. In the late 90s, however the profession's patience wore thin, and in 1998, the Kenya Vet Board published a letter in the national newspapers warning farmers not to use these illegal services and threatening to strike any veterinarian involved in them off the veterinary register. With the issue out in the open, the government moved quickly to establish a multi-stakeholder dialogue to review the policy and legislation to legalise, but impose some control on CAHW services. By 2001 new policies and legistlation had been prepared, but strong opposition to their adoption then emerged among some sections of the Kenya Veterinary Association, and the process stalled.

Key Researchers:
John Young, Research Fellow, ODI
Julius Kajume, Department of Veterinary Services, Nairobi, Kenya
Jacob Wanyama, Intermediate Technology Development Group, Kenya

Further Information:
A summary of the results of the study
A bibliography
The full Working Paper (Adobe Pdf 336kb)