IGAD/ICPALD organized a regional Validation Workshop on Public Resource Allocation and Private Sector Investment in Livestock in the IGAD Region from 25-26 July 2017 in Mombasa, Kenya. Welcome remarks were made by Dr. Solomon Munyua, Director of ICPALD. He welcomed the delegates, gave a brief history as to when IGAD ICPALD undertook the first initiative to showcase the contribution of livestock to the national economies of the MS. Dr Solomon further informed the workshop that after the studies that reflect increased contribution of livestock to the economies of the IGAD MSs, there was a need to understand the investment the countries are making on to the livestock sector, know the status of the investment and gaps therein, and identify priorities and strategies so that investments on the livestock sector shall be promoted based on evidences generated, hence the commissioning of studies across the region on resource allocation to the sector by both the public and private stakeholders.
The Deputy Director and head of budget, Dr Peter Mbatha, in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries – Kenya, on behalf of the CVO Kenya opened the workshop and appreciated the support of IGAD in strengthening livestock identification and traceability system(LITS) and the many studies conducted with support from STSD and Vet Gov projects. He mentioned that IGAD had assisted the country to develop the PPR national strategy and other animal health strategies.
The participants were drawn from each member states/MS/ Ministry in charge of livestock; Ministry of Finance and or planning and representatives of civil societies including Veterinary board or associations, Animal production society, livestock marketing council; FAO and OIE. The objectives of the workshop were to review the study report, share status and lessons learnt from MS, validate key findings, challenges and recommendations and agree on the way forward.
The following presentations were made at the plenary meeting and discussed
- Findings on Public Resource Allocation for Livestock Sector in the IGAD Region
- Process and Principles of Public Resource Allocation in IGAD Member States and Current Budget Ceiling for Livestock (by the Ministry of Finance )
- Findings on Private Sector Investment in Livestock Sector in the IGAD Region
- Update on Private Investment in Livestock Sector in the IGAD member countries (by the Ministry in charge of Livestock )
Recommendations:
- The report should incorporate the workshop comments and the enriched version be shared to participants and other stakeholders
- The evidence in the validated report be shared to policy makers of IGAD MS for increased public resource allocation and private investment for livestock development;
- The private sector be supported and encouraged by the public sectors to enhance private sector investment in various priority opportunities existing on livestock or to undertake public private sector partnership /ppp/
- Livestock census should be carried out every ten years intervals for better planning purposes rather than every twenty years
The participants commended IGAD/ICPALD for undertaking this useful study and AUIBAR/VET-GOV project for financing the study and the workshop.