Author: team galvmed

Monitoring and Evaluation: Designing for impact

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At GALVmed, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is not an afterthought. It is integrated from the very start of the development of new projects and programmes. This approach ensures that our projects are designed with a clear vision of impact. It also ensures that we, and our funders, have realistic expectations on what can be achieved within a project’s lifetime.

There are three key areas where we provide early input:

  1. Modelling the prospective impact of an initiative: Whenever possible, we forecast the potential economic benefits of a project for small-scale livestock producers (SSPs) before it even starts using a prospective modelling approach. This forward-looking method provides insights into the potential economic returns, in terms of animal lives saved and productivity regained, for SSPs purchasing critical livestock vaccines and other animal health products. Before a project begins, stakeholders and funders can understand the investment potential, and this helps decision making on where to allocate resources.
  2. Creating a Theory of Change: The Theory of Change is an important part of our process. It clearly outline the changes we want to see, how the project will lead to those changes, the expected timelines for impact, and the key assumptions we are working with. This clarity ensures that everyone involved in the project has a common understanding. The Theory of Change also helps us identify potential risks and challenges early on so we can course correct to keep our initiatives on track.
  3. Developing an evaluation framework: A framework that clearly defines the OECD DAC evaluation criteria we will use, along with the associated evaluation questions, indicators, data sources, sampling methods, timing, and data analysis approaches, ensures that we establish a clear plan from the beginning on how we will assess and measure the impact of our initiatives. This framework facilitates a shared understanding of our evaluation process.

By integrating M&E from the early stages of project design and implementation, our initiatives are strategically designed to maximise impact for the small-scale livestock producers we serve.

This blog was written by Katharine Tjasink, Senior Manager, Impact, Evaluation & Learning, as part of the campaign ”M&E: Designing for Impact”.

Breaking new ground in the regulatory environment: the EAC Mutual Recognition Procedure expands its product scope to include veterinary ectoparasiticides

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Preventable animal diseases pose serious risks to livestock health, productivity, national economies, and people’s livelihoods. Access to safe and high-quality veterinary products is crucial for protecting livestock, and by extension, farmers and communities depend on quality veterinary products. However, if the regulatory systems responsible for bringing these products to market are inadequate, small-scale producers may miss out on vital animal health solutions and suffer avoidable setbacks.

In sub-Saharan Africa, obtaining approval to sell veterinary medicines in the market requires applying for a marketing authorisation separately in each country where the product is to be sold. This is often a lengthy, resource-intensive process that discourages private sector investment, hence limiting the sustainable supply of veterinary medicines.  

Since 2010, GALVmed and its partners, AU-PANVAC and HealthforAnimals, have been supporting the East African Community (EAC) to implement a mutual recognition procedure (MRP) in the EAC Partner States that allows for simultaneous application of marketing authorisations in multiple countries. This saves time and allows countries and applicants to use their resources more efficiently.

In 2022, GALVmed contracted a consultant to conduct a landscape analysis of veterinary ectoparasiticides (pesticides) regulation in six Partner States (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, south Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda and the United Republic of Tanzania). The analysis reported several areas of divergence in the region in the regulation of these products. This informed the need to harmonise the veterinary ectoparasiticides regulation and in order to implement the EAC Council of Ministers directive, EAC secretariat with support from GALVmed, TradeMark Africa (TMA)  and The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) developed working documents under the MRP initiative to harmonise regulation.

 As of June 2024, this novel initiative has been extended to also include registration of veterinary ectoparasiticides, thereby allowing companies to submit these products for registration through the MRP system. The draft guidelines and other key technical documents have been approved, and current efforts are aimed at capacity building related to initial training of veterinary ectoparasiticides dossier assessors.

An initial six days workshop took place in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on 18th-24th July to build institutional capacity and application of best practices for the evaluation and registration of veterinary ectoparasiticides to safeguard human health, animal health and the environment. This will enhance capacity of veterinary pesticides assessors on risk assessment and dossier evaluation to improve public trust in the MRP process, which will attract submission of safe, quality and efficacious veterinary pesticides in the region.

The meeting was attended by MRP members from veterinary medicine regulatory authorities drawn from Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan. The training was conducted by representatives from Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority and EAC Secretariat.

MRP represents a key advancement in harmonising and strengthening veterinary product registration by reducing the time, costs, and resources needed to bring these medicines to market. By streamlining approvals and extending to new product categories like ectoparasiticides, this initiative enhances availability and access to essential animal health solutions, supporting animal health, livestock production, strengthening the livelihoods of farming communities, and contributing to sustainable development.

Stronger regulations would bolster food security and livelihoods in Africa

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Originally published by S&P Global. Written by Lois Muraguri, Senior Director of Enabling Environment & Partner Engagement.

Across the African continent, livestock are one of the leading sources of food security and resilient livelihoods. Livestock production contributes 30-80% of the continent’s total agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and provides jobs and nutrition for millions. Yet, Africa’s livestock sector faces several growing challenges – not least the spread of diseases, which threaten to disrupt the incomes and livelihoods of rural communities.

Diseases like foot-and-mouth disease, Newcastle disease and peste des petits ruminants cause widespread animal and productivity losses across the continent. In total, more than 20% of the world’s animal production is lost to animal diseases, with the burden exceptionally higher in regions like sub-Saharan Africa.

In most cases, veterinary medicines and vaccines are a vital solution to these challenges, helping to safeguard the livelihoods and food supply that livestock provide. Yet, across Africa, the regulatory frameworks by which new veterinary medicines can be registered and approved to address these challenges are either outdated, ineffective or simply non-existent.

In the last decade, great strides have been made to improve regulatory frameworks in sub-Saharan Africa. There have been various initiatives aimed at improving the regulation of veterinary medicines in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of these, such as initiatives under HealthforAnimals, have focused on improving capability of regulators through training and offering technical assistance on specific areas. Others, such as the UK’s Veterinary Medicines Directorate’s sub-Saharan Africa program, have looked at options for regulatory harmonization. These, plus efforts by the WOAH and others, have raised awareness and increased understanding of the need for improving regulatory frameworks in sub-Saharan Africa. 

With climate change and accelerating continental trade hastening the spread of livestock diseases, Africa needs a functioning regulatory environment for veterinary medicines. An efficient regulatory framework benefits all players – regulators, product manufacturers and ultimately, livestock producers and farmers. In the last decade, great strides have been made by regulators. A functioning regulatory framework will help to equip livestock producers with quality products, supporting them to protect their livelihoods and their vital contributions to continental food security.

To begin with, a functioning and harmonized regulatory environment for veterinary medicines can unlock further private-sector investment, which has been constrained across the continent. At present, animal health companies are discouraged from registering their products in some countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Global and local companies alike face significant regulatory and commercial barriers. This is in part because of unclear and unpredictable regulatory frameworks, which are often driven by limited capacity to assess the safety and efficacy of veterinary medicines.

Creating a functioning environment for regulating veterinary medicines will begin to address private sector concerns, enabling animal health companies and manufacturers to invest and register new products that are subsequently adopted by Africa’s livestock keepers.

Regulation of novel and cutting-edge technologies requires experienced regulators to assess the next generation of innovations. Africa’s regulatory agencies often lack the necessary expertise and resources to efficiently regulate novel, innovative veterinary products thereby reducing the likelihood of these products’ availability in African markets. Similarly, for emerging diseases, the lack of a long-term market and clear regulatory pathway inhibits the development of vaccines.

Void for vet meds

The lack of safe, quality, effective veterinary products creates a void that is currently being filled by poor-quality counterfeit products, which do not offer benefits to livestock producers and whose ineffectiveness may instead undermine confidence in the effects and benefits of livestock vaccination. Similarly, regulators in sub-Saharan Africa facing inefficient regulatory systems encounter numerous challenges that affect various aspects of public health, animal welfare and the economy. The prevalence of substandard, counterfeit products is not an issue for livestock producers and private sector only – these products hamper regulators’ disease control efforts. Inefficient systems discourage private sector investment which leads to potential loss of revenues from registration fees and taxes. Ineffective regulation can adversely affect livestock health leading to lower productivity, higher mortality rates and economic losses for farmers ultimately resulting in lower national productivity.

By unlocking greater investment from animal health companies through a functioning regulatory environment, we can also deliver multiple benefits for the African continent’s millions of livestock producers. Due to the inadequate existing regulatory framework, Africa’s livestock producers typically do not have adequate access to medicines or cannot be sure of their quality, with many therefore choosing not to vaccinate their animals.

Yet we know losses from livestock diseases can be preventable – if only farmers can be made aware and assured of the quality of these medicines. A more predictable and clear registration process for new veterinary medicines can therefore improve the availability of quality veterinary medicines, whose use can prevent livestock disease, improve livestock production and boost producers’ incomes.

A well-functioning regulatory system provides immense benefits to regulators as well. It ensures only safe and effective veterinary medicines reach the market, protecting both animal health and public health, thereby preventing zoonotic diseases. It ensures medicines are manufactured to high standards reducing the risk of substandard or counterfeit products. The economic benefits that flow from a functioning regulatory framework, such as improved market access, increased investment and trade facilitation, are compounded at national level contributing to rural economies and GDP. Regulators also have a stake in improved disease control; effective regulation ensures timely availability of veterinary medicines for the prevention and control of animal diseases directly contributing to countries’ disease control efforts.  

Ultimately, facing evolving disease threats because of climate change and global trade, the animal health private sector and livestock producers need a greater say in the development of Africa’s regulatory system in order to deliver much-needed improvements to its efficiency. Improving regulatory frameworks requires regulators, the private sector and livestock producers to come together to develop an accessible and time- and cost-effective regulatory system for veterinary medicines.

GALVmed work

Parties like GALVmed, for example, can be an invaluable convener. GALVmed is already supporting the implementation of the East African Community Mutual Recognition Procedure project, which is helping to harmonize registration requirements for veterinary medicines across eight countries in East Africa. By allowing companies to seek approval for multiple countries simultaneously, rather than bilateral applications at a national level, this project incentivises animal health companies to seek licences in multiple countries, thereby increasing their market.

This creates more choice and support for livestock producers and offers a model for harmonizing regulations for veterinary medicines across the continent, working hand-in-hand with the private animal health sector.

GALVmed is also working in collaboration with WOAH, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and the East African Community on a new project called Improving Access to Quality Veterinary Products via Better Regulation. This will support regulatory agencies across Africa to identify their capacity-building needs and how they could be addressed, helping to improve the regulation of veterinary medicines at scale.

Ultimately, the inadequate and inefficient regulatory system for veterinary medicines that prevails across most of Africa causes negative impacts throughout the value chain – for regulators, animal health companies, livestock farmers and the continent’s food security at large. The momentum from past and current efforts by various parties must be accelerated. Well-functioning regulatory frameworks will lead to increased investment, confidence in the system, resulting in availability of more safe and effective veterinary medicines in the market. 

Achieving this goal will help ensure Africa’s livestock producers have quality veterinary medicines that address the rising disease challenges they face while safeguarding their contribution to the future of food security in Africa.

Creating an enabling environment for the regulation of veterinary medicines in Africa

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In sub-Saharan Africa, bringing safe and high-quality veterinary products and vaccines to market often involves navigating complex, time-consuming, and resource-intensive regulatory processes.

This challenging process presents a significant barrier to private sector investment and undermines the sustainable supply of high-quality, safe, and effective livestock health products. This situation adversely affects regulators, product manufacturers, and ultimately, small-scale producers by limiting their access to high-quality veterinary products that are essential for the care and treatment of their livestock. This in return compromises food security and safety, diminishes animal health and productivity, and impacts farmers’ livelihoods.

An improved policy and regulatory environment that facilitates the successful transformation of research products into sustainable animal health solutions for small-scale livestock producers is crucial to achieving GALVmed’s mission and ensure availability of safe and efficacious veterinary products in sub-Saharan Africa.

Since 2011, the East African Community (EAC) with support from GALVmed, and HealthforAnimals have been implementing the EAC’s Mutual Recognition Procedure system (EAC MRP), which simplifies the registration process by allowing applicants to apply simultaneously for licences in multiple countries. Now, a new project to be implemented in collaboration with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the EAC, and the UK Veterinary Medicines Directorate  (UK-VMD), and with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), is set to further improve the regulatory systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Challenges of Veterinary Medicines Regulation in Africa

The Better Regulation Project Vision

GALVmed & Partners

The Better Regulation project will support the establishment of a long-term governance structure for cooperation between veterinary regulatory agencies. It will further develop and promote the adoption of a self-assessment tool to help regulators strengthen their capacities. Additionally, the project will improve the efficiency and sustainability of the EAC MRP. All these activities are expected to create a more effective regulatory environment for veterinary medicines.

Improving the regulatory systems for veterinary medicines across Africa will ensure that quality, safe, and effective veterinary products are available on the continent in a timely manner. This will contribute to improved animal health, livestock production, and livelihoods.

PREVENT: How hatchery vaccinations are boosting poultry production in Africa

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Marie Ducrotoy, Senior Manager Development Projects and Partnerships, Ceva Santé Animale

Tom Osebe, Senior Manager, Commercial Development & Impact, Africa, GALVmed

Improvement in poultry production is one of the most promising options to provide affordable protein and other essential nutrients to Africa’s rapidly growing population, but poultry diseases pose a constant threat to productivity, and limit the industry’s potential. Even though vaccination is proven as an effective way of protecting poultry, high temperatures in Africa make distribution of vaccines (which mostly need to be kept cold) a challenging task in the continent. This hurdle, combined with a lack of information about circulating infectious diseases, exposes small-scale producers to the risk of losing their flocks and livelihoods overnight.

In 2021, Ceva Santé Animale in partnership with GALVmed, and with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), launched the PREVENT (PRomoting and Enabling Vaccination Efficiently, Now and Tomorrow) initiative to introduce hatchery vaccinations for day old chicks (DoC) in mid-size hatcheries in Africa. The overarching objective was to enable small-scale poultry producers in Africa to become more productive and efficient and to enhance their prospects for progression and advancement in the industry. And the targets were ambitious; over 50 million hatchery-vaccinated day-old chicks distributed annually through 36 medium-sized hatcheries spread across eight Africa countries. These were expected to benefit 150,000 poultry producers.  

Three years since inception and with over a year left on the project, PREVENT has performed remarkably and is on track to achieving, and in some instances exceeding, its targets. Already, 31 hatcheries in 11 countries have been equipped to provide vaccinations to DoCs benefitting over 100,000 poultry farmers.

More vaccines for improved immunity and reduced mortality

Because chickens are susceptible to a range of infectious diseases that can impact their health and growth, it is important they are vaccinated with several vaccines on the day of hatch. At an average of three doses per vaccinated day-old chick (vDoC), small-scale producers are benefitting from a much larger range of vaccination covering more disease than before, which in turn improve the quantity and quality of the birds. PREVENT has succeeded in vaccinating over 98 million DoCs, exceeding the 56 million originally targeted. This is attributed to the unexpected success of most hatcheries transitioning from zero to one hundred percent vaccination, in contrast to the staged gradual increase in vaccination which had been modelled. Overall, 91% of DoCs produced by the hatcheries are vaccinated.  

Additionally, twenty vaccines have been registered variably in the West African Economic and Monetary Union- UEMOA region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo) as well as Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana and Rwanda offering a diverse offering for use by hatcheries.

Technical support to farmers

Implementing vaccination measures alone is not enough, training on animal health practices, market development opportunities, and advice on biosecurity and good management practices is an important part of the solution for small-scale producers. PREVENT is working with over 200 Field Technicians who have been trained and who serve as the crucial link between the hatcheries and producers. They are providing advice and technical support to the poultry producers and helping to build the customer base of the hatcheries.

A boost for poultry disease data

The SAFER (Sub-Saharan Africa Field Epidemiological Research) portion of the PREVENT project was designed to assess the aetiology of disease outbreaks. Through existing network of field technicians, valuable data on circulation of specific poultry viruses has been collected. This data will be use Ceva and GALVmed to assess if the current vaccines and vaccination program are adequate to protect against  circulating viruses. The data will also be useful to policymakers, hatcheries and their customers for effective disease control. Activities in the SAFER project are providing a significant boost for available epidemiological data for Africa.

Understanding gender dynamics in poultry farming

In order to positively impact women chicken producers through the hatchery intervention, the initiative sought to bring a pragmatic level of understanding of gender dynamics within the poultry sector.  A gender landscaping analysis is helping to shed light on these dynamics which can guide how women can benefit from poultry interventions in the future.

PREVENT has brought about lasting transformational market change as more farmers embrace vaccinated DoCs due to the benefits they offer. Ceva is continually working to create awareness of the advantages of vaccinated DoCs through simplified communication to farmers focusing on better protection improved poultry health, less work for the farmer, and better performance and more money for producers.

How Digital Innovation Will Unlock the Potential of Africa’s Livestock Producers

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Written by Enrique Hernández Pando, Head of Commercial Development & Impact, and Tom Osebe, Senior Manager, Commercial Development & Impact, Africa. Originally published by Farming First.

New animal health platforms are needed to unleash the commercial and development potential of small-scale livestock producers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Home to tens of millions of small-scale livestock producers and a quarter of the world’s livestock, Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to become the commercial powerhouse of the animal health industry. For decades, however, a variety of investment barriers have prevented animal health companies from tapping into this potential. A lack of market data and intelligence makes investment a challenging proposition and the widely dispersed and often remote farms tended by small-scale producers are a challenge to veterinary service networks.

This is not just bad news for business. Limited investment has denied the continent’s small-scale producers the same access to quality animal health products and expertise as their counterparts in the Global North. Reliant on limited and often unregulated medicines and unable to meet regularly with vets, millions of small-scale producers are forced to raise their animals sub-optimally, impacting profits. Livestock’s proven ability to fuel sustainable development through increased incomes, improved nutrition and economic prosperity is being curtailed.

Now for the good news. With digital innovations that are already being developed, we can unleash the enormous potential of Sub-Saharan Africa’s small-scale livestock producers and turbo-charge the animal health industry.

Market intelligence platform

Establishing prosperous and sustainable animal health markets is a long-term goal of the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), an organisation dedicated to making livestock vaccines, medicines and diagnostics accessible and affordable in Africa and South Asia. For the past few years, GALVmed has been working with a wide range of partners to create a suite of digital platforms designed to finally bridge the gaps between the animal health industry and the continent’s small-scale producers.

The first of these – which is being developed in partnership with AgNexus Africa, Kruger Consulting, Pizzly Consult and Folio3 – is a Market Intelligence Platform. By aggregating reliable and up-to-date sales data from various sources in the animal health industry, the Market Intelligence Platform will give companies an unprecedented understanding of the size and nature of the animal health market across sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2024, a minimum viable product will be developed to allow users to size and estimate the Kenyan market. This will help companies quantify demand, secure investments and reach underserved small-scale livestock producers. The platform will be expanded to include Tanzania, Ethiopia and Nigeria. 

To ensure the Market Intelligence Platform continues to provide accurate information for years to come, GALVmed is also helping to digitise the agrodealer industry. Since December 2023, AgNexus Africa and GALVmed have been equipping hundreds of agrodealers in Kenya and Tanzania with smart devices that log their sales. Not only is this improving the efficiency of the industry, but the logged sales data will be fed into the Market Intelligence Platform, providing businesses with a steady stream of real-time market data. 

Telehealth and e-commerce platform

The second major innovation is the Telehealth and E-commerce Platform, which is designed to tackle the limited reach of animal health professionals in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, vets and paravets can only visit about five farms a day as they navigate remote villages, poor infrastructure and seasonal access roads. The Telehealth and E-commerce Platform is set to dramatically increase the number of cases these professionals can take on by enabling virtual consultations and clinical sign recognition.

In partnership with VetNOW, the National Animal Disease Information Service and Africa Veterinary Technicians Association, a team of 10 vets has been enlisted to populate the platform with diagnostic information for an initial 55 priority diseases of cattle, sheep and goats. There are also plans for the platform to enable vets and paravets to give prescriptions, order products, submit cases for laboratory testing and even scan product barcodes to see if a particular animal health product is licensed to be traded. The Telehealth and E-commerce Platform will in future integrate with the Market Intelligence Platform, creating comprehensive market datasets for the poorly understood last mile of animal health value chains.   

In 2024, a minimum viable product offering telemedicine and clinical sign recognition – but without the e-commerce component – will be developed, covering Kenya’s Kiambu and Nakuru counties. This project is being implemented within Kenya’s veterinary medicine practice regulations.

Unleashing the potential of livestock producers

These platforms will be available via AgNexus Africa and VetNOW. The Market Intelligence Platform data will use a fee-based subscription model to ensure its long-term sustainability. The Telehealth and E-commerce Platform, meanwhile, will work on a demand aggregation model – similar to how taxi and food delivery apps work – with VetNOW in charge of the day-to-day operations. 

By ending the disconnect between the animal health sector and small-scale livestock producers, these platforms will help unleash the commercial and development potential of sub-Saharan Africa’s livestock.

Cover image credit: @Shutterstock/Wazzkii

ONELab – Diagnostic Solution to Small-scale Poultry Farming

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Chickens play a pivotal role in Africa as both a vital source of food and income. However, poultry diseases pose a substantial challenge to productivity, food security, and the economic progression of small-scale producers. Additionally, mistreatment and improper use of antibiotics to treat such diseases exacerbate the issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), crippling the development of the poultry sector.

In 2020, LAPROVET, a Ceva Santé Animale group company, partnered with GALVmed and launched the OneLab initiative, a programme to develop a network of private veterinary laboratories in Senegal to facilitate access to diagnostic tools. Through this initiative, a group of private veterinary doctors in Senegal was equipped and trained to conduct antimicrobial sensitivity tests. Since activities started in July 2021, more than 1,000 analyses have been performed.

The OneLab initiative contributes to reducing misdiagnosis and overuse of antibiotics, playing a crucial role in mitigating the threat of AMR, and safeguarding both animal and public health.

A Rising Tide Doesn’t Lift All Boats: Why Africa’s Livestock Intensification Can’t Leave Women Behind

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Written by Katharine Tjasink, Senior Manager, Impact, Evaluation & Learning (GALVmed); Lamyaa Al-Riyami, Senior Manager, Evaluation, Programme Planning, (GALVmed); and Zoë Campbell, Scientist, Gender, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Originally published by Farming First

For many of Africa’s 240 million women livestock keepers, success in the industry is a double-edged sword that brings difficult questions of its own, mainly: what happens next?

On top of existing obstacles women face in Africa’s livestock sector – from a lack of access to land, finance, technology, and information about disease control – a successful livestock business can often lock horns with the prevailing gender and social norms across the continent.

For instance, research from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) shows that women face significant challenges when the fortunes of their business rise. These include difficulties balancing an increasing workload with other responsibilities and potentially losing control over their own resources and decision-making by attracting the attention and investment of their husbands or male family members.

As Africa endeavours to intensify its livestock production to meet food security goals, it is imperative to address these gender disparities to avoid unintended consequences and ensure equitable development. Acute care must be taken to avoid leaving women behind and jeopardising gender equality.

This is why the PREVENT project, a Ceva Santé Animale initiative in collaboration with GALVmed, is adopting a “gender lens” to intensify Africa’s livestock production. The Promoting and Enabling Vaccination Efficiently, Now and Tomorrow (PREVENT) project specifically focuses on providing vaccinations for day-old chicks at mid-size hatcheries across Africa.

This approach is crucial as mid-size hatcheries serve many women farmers. Poultry rearing and production, more generally, provides a valuable source of income to women farmers, while also making an important contribution to the reduction of food insecurity and rural poverty across the African continent.

Yet, across Africa, uptake of some veterinary vaccines, key tools to protect advances in productivity,  has been limited. Small-scale poultry production struggle with access to quality vaccines and veterinary services. As a result, rural producers can have their flocks, and the income and stability they represent, wiped out overnight due to otherwise preventable diseases.

By focusing on disease prevention through increasing the accessibility of vaccinated chicks, the PREVENT project is not only boosting productivity by reducing livestock losses but also catering to women farmers, many of whom lack access to critical disease prevention technologies.

Likewise, through the provision of technical training and information dissemination about chicken management, biosecurity, and vaccination, PREVENT is bridging the knowledge and technical divide that holds back Africa’s poultry farmers, including women.

With the support of field technicians, the PREVENT project is contributing to greater animal production and income growth through improved disease control. At the same time, the project is bolstering the knowledge and skills necessary for successful poultry management, benefitting a diverse range of poultry farmers, including those traditionally overlooked women farmers.

In order to benefit future interventions, the PREVENT project is also seeking to improve understanding of the existing social norms impacting women, and their success, in the African livestock sector.

To achieve this, a gender landscaping analysis conducted by the project helped to shed light on these norms by presenting mock case studies of women involved in successful livestock businesses to focus groups across Africa. By collating responses from these groups, the analysis provided insights into the complex social and cultural norms shaping women’s experiences in the industry.

The findings from the gender landscaping analysis are instrumental in informing future development interventions. Quantitative and qualitative impact assessments are also being carried out by the project to contribute to the understanding of gender perspectives in the sector. By understanding the expectations and challenges faced by women in the livestock sector, future projects can act more sensitively to ensure that women’s success does not come into conflict with prevailing social norms. This proactive approach is essential for creating an inclusive and equitable livestock sector in Africa.

Ultimately, intensification of animal production is crucial for providing nutritious food for Africa’s rapidly growing population. Yet, greater success for women livestock farmers can – counterintuitively – bring new challenges of its own.

Therefore, ensuring the overall success of Africa’s food system transformation means also addressing prevailing gender disparities in the livestock sector.

By responding to existing gender gaps in livestock health and improving understanding of complex gender dynamics affecting their livelihoods, the PREVENT project is playing a vital role in ensuring that Africa’s dynamic women farmers are not left behind.

Photo credit: Female poultry farmer, Iringa, Tanzania, 2021. @Colin Dames

Invest in Women to Accelerate Progress

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International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on March 8, is a day to reflect on the gender disparities that hinder women’s opportunities worldwide, while advocating for policies and strategies that pave the path to gender equality.

The theme for International Women’s Day 2024, as set by  UN Women, is Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress. With this campaign, UN Women shed light on an alarming reality: An additional $360 billion per year is needed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment across key global goals, including to end poverty and hunger.

In the livestock context, where GALVmed operates, we must advocate for animal health and livestock strategies that are designed with attention to and addressing gender issues and inequities, to ensure women have equal access to resources and business opportunities as men. By investing in women, we not only advance global goals such as food security and poverty eradication, but also build a more inclusive and sustainable world.

How is GALVmed contributing to women’s empowerment?

Why is it important to invest in women in the livestock sector?

Women make up 43 percent of the global agricultural labour force, and therefore their work and contributions are of tremendous importance. Despite their potential to drive change within the agriculture and livestock sector towards more resilient, prosperous, and sustainable systems, rural women still face numerous challenges that leave them, and their communities, behind. We must allocate resources toward initiatives that amplify women’s contributions and opportunities, catalysing progress for women and men alike. This International Women’s Day, as well as every day of the year, let’s advocate for increased investment in women as a crucial step to help closing the gender gap and forging a future where everyone can thrive.

Banner Photo: Pascal Maitre & Chris de Bode/Panos Pictures

Written by Patricia Valdeón Noya as part of the International Women’s Day 2024 campaign on #InvestInWomen

GALVmed’s Achievements

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Over one billion people around the world depend on livestock for their livelihoods, of which more than 900 million are in Africa and South Asia. However, preventable animal diseases pose a constant threat to productivity, food safety and security, income, opportunities, and individual and community prosperity. Consequently, protecting livestock is critical to improving human lives.

Focusing on sub–Saharan Africa and South Asia, GALVmed’s vision is transformational improvement in the well-being and economic progression of small-scale livestock producers. We do this through:

  • Improving availability: By researching, improving and developing much-needed animal health products and solutions.
  • Increasing accessibility:  By ensuring the needed products reach the markets and are accessible and affordable to small-scale producers.
  • Improving adoption: By easing barriers in the regulatory and policy environment, facilitating product registration.
  • Increasing understanding: By providing practical data and information from the small-scale livestock producer field to measure impact and facilitate data-driven decisions.

Working in collaboration with partners, GALVmed has implemented, over the years, various programmes across Africa and South Asia. GALVmed’s achievements from 2014 to 2022 are:

  • 1.2 billion livestock vaccines, therapeutics and other animal health products sold to small-scale customers in 15 countries across Africa and South Asia.
  • Approximately 5.7 million cumulative annual customers served.
  • 23.7 million livestock deaths averted saving the sector approximately of $386 million.
  • Approximately $119 million of cattle mortalities averted from East Coast Fever disease.
  • Approximately $52.5 million in poultry deaths averted from Newcastle disease.
  • 15 new animal health products developed since 2010.
  • A total of 9 products registered under the Mutual Recognition Procedure (MRP) to date.
  • Over 90 publications disseminated.

These achievements reflect not just progress but also strong commitment to improving the lives of those who depend on livestock for their livelihoods. GALVmed remains dedicated to collaborating with partners to ensure effective animal health products are widely available in sub–Saharan Africa and south Asia, contributing to our purpose of protecting livestock to improve human lives.