Livestock production is the highest-value farming subsector globally, accounting for 40 percent of agricultural gross domestic product. This figure looks set to increase as populations in the Global South become larger, wealthier and more urbanised, with demand for livestock products such as milk, meat and eggs predicted to double or even triple.

This is good news for small-scale livestock producers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, over two-thirds of whom depend on livestock for some or all of their livelihoods. In addition to supplying a source of income and nutrition, livestock – whether cattle, goats, sheep or poultry – can boost agricultural production, reduce hunger and furnish life-changing funds for healthcare and education. From poultry holdings in rural Kenya to the backyard goat pens of Nigeria, livestock are a lifeline for millions of people.

Increasing demand for animal products therefore presents a unique opportunity for small-scale livestock producers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to multiply these far-reaching benefits and unlock new income sources. To do so, however, it is essential to reduce livestock losses due to disease. Appropriate and affordable veterinary medicines, especially reliable and efficient vaccines, are needed to sustainably increase livestock productivity while reducing both the financial burden and environmental impact of inefficient livestock production.

Unfortunately, the availability of quality veterinary medicines remains limited and livestock enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia hold little appeal for the private sector. This is due to a combination of dispersed and remote customers, scarce market information, disorganised distribution chains, weak infrastructure and services, and excessively complicated national regulations. The result is an unregulated and unpredictable market that not only constrains livestock enterprises and sustainable intensification, but may also damage the environment, drive drug resistance and encourage the use of counterfeit and substandard products.

Ultimately it is small-scale livestock producers and their families who bear the brunt of these problems. In Africa, for example, the veterinary medicines market accounts for an estimated 14 percent (FAO STAT) of the world’s livestock but represents only 2–7 percent of the global animal health product business.

To allow small-scale livestock producers to benefit from the soaring demand for animal products, GALVmed works with private and public organisations to improve access, awareness and adoption of affordable quality livestock medicines in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. To achieve this, GALVmed brings new therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines to market and builds innovation into the veterinary medicines supply chains. Our ultimate goal is to improve the livelihoods, wellbeing and economic progression of small-scale livestock producers through increased livestock productivity and sustainable livestock sector development.

Serve small-scale livestock : We believe that the long-term interests of small-scale livestock producers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are best addressed by promoting and developing functional, competitive markets for animal health products.

Fight priority livestock diseases with vaccines: GALVmed will continue to lead the fight against infectious diseases that severely constrain the small-scale production of livestock such as poultry, sheep, goat and cattle in and South Asia. Our priority remains supporting the production of livestock vaccines. However, we will continue to explore the potential of parasiticides and diagnostics with significant beneficial impacts for small-scale livestock producers.

No company too big or too small: We are committed to assisting all sizes of animal health companies build functional and sustainable businesses that serve small-scale livestock producers. We aim to be the primary research and development and commercialisation partner for any animal health company that has the strategic interest and capacity to deliver quality health products in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Improve access to veterinary medicines: We will continue to fill critical product gaps through industry-led product development partnerships that deliver new or improved industry-standard veterinary medicines to small-scale livestock producers.

Put the last mile first: Recognising that many key constraints to quality animal health products are not technological in nature, we are shifting our commercial development focus away from establishing traditional distribution businesses and towards exploring truly innovative platforms that broadly address weaknesses in the whole supply chain, including the last mile.

Focus our efforts: We will concentrate our efforts in Kenya, Tanzania  and Nigeria so that these countries can serve as models of animal health care for others to follow. This will not prevent us from exploring other opportunities and supporting our commercial partners with a broader geographic focus.

GALVmed’s 2030 Strategy will build on our previous achievements and direct our activities and investments until 2030. Developed in 2022, it aims to make high-impact animal health products available through the private sector and to support functional markets for small-scale livestock producers. To achieve this, the 2030 Strategy provides GALVmed with a renewed and refocused approach based on the following six choices:

1. We will focus on removing barriers to market entry along the entire animal health product value chain, especially for small-scale livestock producers.
2. We will concentrate our efforts in a set of ‘Tier 1’ countries and engage opportunistically in a set of ‘Tier 2’ countries. [1]
3. We will develop innovative platforms that specifically address last mile gaps and weaknesses of supply chains.
4. We will engage with all sizes of health companies that have the interest and capacity to deliver quality health products at scale in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
5. We will concentrate our enabling environment and regulatory efforts only on those barriers that are directly related to our central aim of delivering veterinary medicines to small-scale livestock producers .
6. We will position ourselves as the primary partner to the animal health industry for its research and development initiatives and commercialisation activities serving small-scale livestock producers.

In response to these six choices, we have redesigned and reinvigorated our project portfolios across all three of our domains: research and development, commercial development and enabling environment and stakeholder engagement. Together, our strategic initiative will provide a clear and comprehensive framework to unleash the development potential of small-scale livestock production across Africa.

[1] Our Tier 1 countries are Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. Our Tier 2 countries are Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Sudan and Zambia.

Our research and development portfolio, particularly end-to-end product development , remains at the heart of our work, and we are proud to be the product development partner of choice for many animal health companies and funders. As such, changes here are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Our focus will be on developing high-quality animal health products that address the critical gaps in disease control affecting small-scale livestock producers. This needs-based strategy was developed following a series of technical reviews with industry experts and veterinarians in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

As part of this strategy, we will combine extensive technical assessments of existing product portfolios, conduct regular surveys of veterinary services and farms, work more closely with disease surveillance networks to prioritise high-impact diseases, and better understand the usability and relevance of potential products. This will strengthen donor and partner confidence in future product development proposals.

We will work with academic and industry partners to explore technologies and antigens that can be used to create affordable products, vaccines, pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. We will strengthen the capacity of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to develop and register animal health products required by the region’s small-scale livestock producers through multi-partner platforms. We will also support the development and quality control of manufacturing processes for veterinary vaccines and neglected by the private sector.

To create far-reaching sustainable change for small-scale livestock producers, our 2030 Strategy is moving GALVmed’s commercial development efforts away from projects based around a single company or product towards broader, market-oriented and multi-stakeholder activities.

Instead of creating new distribution channels through small-scale enterprises, we will focus on removing the barriers that prevent high-quality products reaching small-scale livestock producers by investing in high-risk but higher-return digital platforms. Rather than engaging only with the commercial arm of animal health companies at the end of a product’s development, we will position ourselves as a provider of accurate, high-quality market intelligence and use this to build relationships with companies early in product development. This will allow us to better guide them towards the highest-impact solutions.

Specific initiatives under this revised approach include identifying and prioritising ways to improve supply chain processes for small-scale livestock producers, and helping digital health companies implement telehealth and mobile communications projects. We will also drive projects that aggregate demand along the animal health value chain – making remote and dispersed customers more accessible and attractive to the private sector. Our commercial development team will continue to provide end-to-end project support for our business partners, guiding products through the commercial development process and into customers’ hands.

Our enabling environment team will continue to support projects developed through GALVmed’s research and development and commercial development activities – whether providing regulatory support, vaccine advocacy, managing government relations or ensuring compliance with national, regional and global protocols. In addition, we will provide the animal health industry with a clear understanding of the business environment to inform and guide their long-term go-to-market strategies. We will also engage more thoroughly with all industry stakeholders – organising meetings for industry members, multilateral agencies and government – to ensure that we identify major barriers to business and co-create solutions to them.

The 2030 Strategy is being published at a time when we see ourselves on the third step of a five-step journey to 2030. The choices made in this strategy, and the corresponding changes across all our areas of work, will allow us to complete this journey and reach our strategic endpoint by the end of the decade.

By 2030, GALVmed will have achieved:

1. A significantly enhanced portfolio of products and technologies for small-scale livestock producers.
2. Tangible investment and engagement in small-scale livestock producers by the animal health industry.
3. Greatly increased supply and uptake of key animal health products for small-scale livestock producers.

Taken together, by 2030 GALVmed will have served 10 million small-scale livestock producers with key products and services, with an average economic benefit of $73 per user. In other words, our strategy will generate $730 million for small-scale livestock producers. Our long-term vision is that, through our work, small-scale livestock producers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia will be on the road to professionalisation and prosperity, and a private-sector-driven animal health industry in Africa and South Asia .

Our plans are ambitious, but we are confident that GALVmed’s 2030 Strategy will create the stronger, more efficient private-sector-driven animal health industry needed to transform the livelihoods and wellbeing of millions of small-scale livestock producers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

To make its strategy a reality, GALVmed will seek external partnerships and funding to translate its strategic goals into projects, initiatives or programmes with a defined and agreed scope, duration and budget. These will generate outputs – such as products, services or events – which will in turn create outcomes, defined as positive changes in technologies, systems, populations or behaviours related to livestock health. Ultimately, the work of GALVmed and our partners will create long-term, beneficial and measurable impacts for small-scale livestock producers.

GALVmed depends on its relationships with a significant number of partners and stakeholders to ensure that livestock medicines are sustainably available and accessible to small-scale livestock producers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Effective engagement of stakeholders and partners is therefore critical to GALVmed’s success.

However, while GALVmed’s programmes are delivered through a broad network of partners, the crucial aspect of designing, developing and overseeing the implementation of the work remains GALVmed’s responsibility. From technical assistance to project management, our team provide the necessary expertise to translate our strategy into tangible benefits for small-scale livestock producers. To learn more about the work we are doing, please visit our programmes page.

Photo credit: Panos Pictures/Chris de Bode