African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and IGAD Center for Pastoral and Livestock Development (ICPALD) have been working together to improve veterinary governance issues in the member states of IGAD. Livestock sector in the IGAD MS is constrained by a number of challenges including trans-boundary animal diseases (TADs), inadequate investments and policies that are not strong enough to boost the sector’s contribution to the development of the economies of the member states. In view of this, AU-IBAR as a pan-African body for livestock development and IGAD as one of the building blocks of the African Union, have been undertaking various projects to support member states including establishment and operationalization of national livestock policy hubs (NLPHs) to articulate livestock policy issues. These policy initiatives focused on supporting livestock policy review and analytics to conform to and address the gaps in the sector. The VET-GOV project of AU-IBAR, building on this initiative, has also been supporting various activities including the strengthening of the policy initiatives since 2012. Somaliland benefited from this programme by establishing the NLPH on 13th June, 2017 through a workshop deliberation. The following were recommendations from the workshop:

• The Livestock Policy Hub for Somaliland be constituted from all stakeholders in the livestock sector from the public and private sector institutions; international, regional and national organizations and institutions- 50% public and 50% private
• The LPH will be anchored within the Ministry of Livestock, the Planning Unit whose Director of Planning should be appointed to serve as LPH Focal Point
• A Small Working Group should be appointed to serve as Secretariat for the NLPH
• The proposed work plan and activities be considered for support by stakeholders and international partners like ICPALD.

IGAD/ICPALD appreciates the financial support by AU-IBAR/EU