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Improving the delivery of veterinary services in Africa: insights from the

empirical application of transaction costs theory in Uganda and Kenya

Article  in  Revue scientifique et technique (International Office of Epizootics) · April 2017

DOI: 10.20506/rst.36.1.2628

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 Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 2017, 36 (1), 279-289

Improving the delivery of veterinary services

in Africa: insights from the empirical application
of transaction costs theory in Uganda and Kenya
J. Ilukor

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Independent Science and Partnership Council’s
Standing Panel on Impact Assessment, Room C6–31, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy
Makerere University College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
Living Standards Measurement Study, Development Data Group of the World Bank, Rwenzori House,
Plot 11 Lumumba Avenue, P.O. Box 4463, Kampala, Uganda
E-mail: John.Ilukor@gmail.com

Summary
This paper presents a summary of findings from a research project that examined
institutional arrangements for providing animal health services in Uganda and Kenya.
Given the need to find solutions to the pervasive governance challenges encountered
in the delivery of veterinary services in Africa, the study applied transaction economics
theory to generate recommendations on how to improve the delivery of these services
and minimise livestock production risks, including those that pose a risk to human
health, e.g. zoonoses.
The most notable recommendations are as follows: i) lower- and middle-income
countries should invest in creating an enabling environment that supports the
relationship between professional veterinarians and para-professionals, to ensure
the timely reporting, treatment and control of animal diseases; ii) the provision of
veterinary extension services should not focus solely on household ‘heads’, but also
on other household members, such as wives and children, and on herdsmen; iii) strong
government engagement is required in the provision of veterinary services for pastoral
or extensive livestock production systems, because normal market forces have failed
to attract professional veterinarians and trained para-professionals from the private
sector to work in these sectors; iv) farmers must be empowered to hold service
providers accountable, by the development and trialling of tools that would enable them
to measure the quality of services that they receive and to verify the qualifications of
different service providers; v) investment in veterinary education is vital, to ensure that
enough qualified veterinary staff are available to offer veterinary services to farmers.

Keywords
Africa – Kenya – Service delivery – Transaction cost economics – Uganda – Veterinary services.

Introduction in the community (2, 3). Livestock production also offers

Livestock production is a very important activity in the
livelihoods of many rural households in developing
countries. It often contributes to multiple livelihood
objectives and is an important source of nutritious food,
income and draught power (1, 2). Livestock are also a
major store of wealth and investment and play a role as a
social asset. For example, livestock are used for paying a
dowry on marriage; as compensation for injured parties
in tribal or clan feuds; and as an indicator of social status
employment opportunities, especially to those involved in
adding value to livestock products (4).
However, animal diseases continue to be a threat to livestock
production and to the realisation of such benefits in most
developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa
(5, 6, 7). An outbreak of disease can mean the difference
between sufficient food and food insecurity; having a secure
income and losing key household assets; and even between
eating healthy food and food that is contaminated (5, 6).

doi: 10.20506/rst.36.1.2628
280
In developing countries, epidemic diseases such as peste des
petits ruminants (PPR), contagious bovine pleuropneumonia
(CBPP) and caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) have led to
the deaths of many animals, while other diseases, including
foot and mouth disease (FMD) and brucellosis, affect
animal growth and milk production (8, 9, 10, 11). Zoonotic
and foodborne diseases, such as gastro-intestinal diseases,
also lead to deaths and increased treatment costs, which are
passed on to the consumers of livestock products (12, 13).
A report by the International Federation of Animal Health
estimates that about one million cattle die of rabies in
Central and South America each year, while 55,000 humans
die of rabies annually in the world, with 99% of these deaths
occurring in developing countries (14). Knight-Jones and
Rushton (10) estimate losses due to FMD in the endemic
regions of Africa and Asia to be in the range of US $5 to
$21 billion annually, in terms of production losses and
vaccine costs alone. In South Sudan, Barasa et al. (15)
estimate a loss of $25 per cow per year from FMD, and,
in Nigeria, Fadiga et al. estimate the economic burden of
PPR, CBPP, trypanosomiasis, Newcastle disease and African
swine fever at $179 million (29.2 billion naira) (16).
A recent study by the International Livestock Research
Institute reveals that many of the major geographical
hotspots for zoonotic diseases are in East Africa, with
all four main countries in the region, namely Ethiopia,
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, appearing among the top
20 countries most burdened by zoonotic disease (13).
The report estimates that about 13 zoonotic diseases are
responsible for 2.4 billion human cases of illness and
2.2 million deaths every year in developing countries. The
risk of zoonotic disease emergence is expected to increase
with increased intensification of livestock production
to meet the ever-increasing demand for animal protein,
especially in developing countries (10, 13). Therefore, there
is a dire need for cost-effective approaches or mechanisms
for managing veterinary services so that they can minimise
risks to livestock production and risks to animal and human
health.
Managing veterinary services:
from private and public analysis
of veterinary service delivery to
process-based analysis
Before the 1980s, the delivery of veterinary services in
Africa, including in Uganda and Kenya, was entirely the
responsibility of the government. However, in the late
1980s, the role of government in providing public services,
Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 36 (1)
including veterinary services, was being questioned in
favour of the market forces of supply and demand, as a
consequence of prolonged fiscal challenges (17). As a result,
the World Bank pressured African governments to adopt
structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) as a condition
for receiving loans (financial or budgetary support). The
expectation was that the SAPs would lessen the fiscal and
governance challenges confronting African governments by
promoting the private sector (the ‘market approach’) as the
preferred means of providing services, including veterinary
services (18).
However, the ‘miracle of the market’ did not happen (17)
and, as a result, the World Bank supported analytical works
on what governments should and should not provide,
such as those of Umali et al. (19) and Ahuja (20). Those
veterinary services for which no market failure was assumed
to exist were categorised as private services and those where
the market approach was not succeeding in ensuring that
demand for those services was met were categorised as
public goods (17, 21). As a result, a number of institutional
arrangements emerged, including: decentralisation, cost
recovery, sub-contracting, the provision of subsidies to
animal health service providers and the Community Animal
Health Worker (CAHW) system, particularly in pastoral
areas. Nonetheless, in most cases, expectations have not
been met (22) and this is largely attributed to institutional
and governance challenges (23, 24, 25).
To address these institutional and governance challenges,
Riviere-Cinnamond (21) recommends that economic
analyses of animal health service delivery should move
towards a process-based approach, which provides a
broader perspective and understanding of transaction
costs. Process-based analysis provides insights into
transaction costs that arise from political interference,
behavioural attributes and other economic attributes,
including market failure (21). Indeed, a number of studies
that examine behavioural attributes and incentives in these
areas, as well as strategic interactions between public- and
private-sector actors, have since emerged (26, 27, 28).
Nevertheless, these studies pay less attention to governance
problems, such as community capacity and state capacity.
Nor do they deal adequately with veterinary service
delivery attributes, such as care intensity (a measure of the
resources required to adequately care for an animal) and
the intensity of transactions that tend to affect the day-to-
day provision of veterinary services (29, 30). This paper
presents a summary of PhD work, originally entitled: ‘An
analysis of institutional arrangements for providing animal
health services: a theoretical framework and empirical
evidence from Kenya and Uganda’ (31). The study applied
transaction cost economics (TCE) to the management of
veterinary services in developing countries, given pervasive
governance and market failures. This approach is based
on the so-called ‘discriminating alignment hypothesis’,
Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 36 (1)
developed by Williamson (32). The thesis developed and
applied innovative tools, such as role-play experiments and
Net Map process tools.
In applying the TCE approach, three steps are required.
i) The process of providing different types of veterinary
services (such as clinical and preventative veterinary
services) should be examined, to identify the actors, their
roles, possible challenges and potential remedies to address
the challenges faced in the provision of effective veterinary
services.
ii) The effectiveness of institutional arrangements should be
examined.
iii) Veterinary services that differ in their characteristics
should be aligned with a system or an institutional
arrangement or governance structure that best fits those
characteristics (in terms of costs and competencies) so as to
determine a cost-effective management approach (32).
Although the literature on veterinary services delivery
identifies many institutional arrangements, such as
decentralisation, government structures, CAHWs, para-
veterinarians (para-professionals), and cost-sharing, this
study considered three main service delivery systems, for
analytical purposes:
– para-professionals
– professionals (qualified veterinarians)
– a referral system of veterinarians and para-professionals.
According to the World Organisation for Animal Health
(OIE), a veterinary para-professional is a person authorised
by the Veterinary Statutory Body to carry out certain
designated tasks in a given territory, delegated to them
under the responsibility and direction of a veterinarian
(33). In reality, most para-professionals in African countries
are not mandated by the Veterinary Statutory Body and
are not under the direction or supervision of veterinarians
(34). Therefore, for the purposes of this paper, the author
considered all service providers who lacked a degree in
veterinary science as para-professionals, including those
who had not been formally trained but who operated a
drug store.
The results from the process analysis revealed that para-
professionals in Kenya and Uganda are more influential
than veterinarians in the provision of clinical services in
intensive livestock production. However, poor relations
between veterinarians and para-professionals in the
provision of clinical veterinary services have greatly affected
the provision of preventative services, such as vaccination
and disease surveillance. This is worsened by the fact
281
that most para-professionals, in the case of Uganda, are
trained in general agriculture, rather than in animal health.
Nevertheless, their services are still in greater demand than
those of private veterinarians, because para-professionals
charge lower fees, are closer to farmers and farmers cannot
measure the quality of services they receive (34, 35). In
Uganda, there were no private veterinarians in either the
pastoral or intensive livestock production system districts
examined in the study. Moreover, out of 11 government
veterinarians, only one was actively involved in providing
veterinary services on a private basis. Most veterinary
services delivery was left to the para-professionals. These
para-professionals have various qualifications. Some have
no education and are trained on the job, while others have
formal education in the social sciences, general agriculture
or accounting, but not in veterinary medicine, and have
received only minimal formal veterinary training. The
quality of services that they provide (measured by their
ability to clinically diagnose a given cattle disease and
prescribe the correct drug and dosage) is generally low (35).
In the case of qualified veterinarians, in both pastoral
and intensive livestock production systems, the quality
of their services is very high. However, absenteeism by
government veterinarians, limited opportunities for career
progress, weak veterinary structures, and inadequate and
unpredictable budgetary allocations were found to affect
their ability to deliver veterinary services.
In the context of clinical services, the results show that
the ability of qualified veterinarians to identify the signs of
different diseases does not significantly differ from that of
para-professionals trained in veterinary science, and there
is little difference in the accuracy of their prescriptions.
However, the ability of service providers who are not
formally trained in veterinary science to perform these tasks
is significantly lower than that of service providers who are
trained. Yet, the non-trained para-professionals are more
dominant in the animal health market (34, 36, 37).
Nonetheless, as shown by the results of a role-play
experiment, presented in Figure 1, the ability of para-
professionals to prescribe drugs correctly improves with
experience and as they interact with qualified veterinarians.
The experiment took place over four ‘rounds’. In each
round, farmers were given an ‘animal medical card’,
similar to those used for people, with the name of a disease
written in both English and the local language. Service
providers were asked to write down the clinical signs for
this disease and to prescribe drug treatment. After each
round, veterinarians and para-professionals had the chance
to discuss their answers, so with each round, the para-
professionals gained experience and the quality of their
response improved (for further details, see [35]). Thus,
building working relationships between para-professionals
282 Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 36 (1)

a) Learning curves, by field of training b) Learning curves, by livestock production system

120 120

100 100
Scores in drug prescription (%)

Scores in drug prescription (%)

80 80

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Round (experience) Round (experience)
Diploma in veterinary science Diploma in agriculture, including a short Intensive
veterinary course
Diploma in social science, including a short Informal veterinary training Pastoral
veterinary course

Fig. 1
An assessment of the ability of para-professionals to prescribe appropriate drugs: improvements in the scores of service providers:
a) with different educational backgrounds and b) working in different types of livestock production
In a role-play exercise, service providers were asked what drugs they would prescribe for a given disease. The exercise was repeated for four different
diseases. Between each round, para-professionals discussed their answers with professional veterinarians to learn more about clinical signs and
appropriate drug treatment

and veterinarians may be the key to improving the quality The management of veterinary services:
of services offered by para-professionals. insights from transaction cost economics
Unfortunately, legislation to support the strengthening of Insights from the TCE analysis show that it is not enough
relationships between veterinarians and para-professionals to categorise veterinary services into public and private
is not easily enforceable in the pastoral areas of either Kenya goods. Doing so ignores governance attributes that ensure
or Uganda, because there are no or very few qualified continuity and sustained service delivery, as well as
veterinarians and veterinary-trained para-professionals (34). variations in the technical competence of service providers
In Uganda, such legislation is also outdated and ineffective and in the quality of veterinary services offered to livestock
(36). The most recent revision of legislation in Uganda farmers (38). Such division of services into public and
occurred in 2003, mainly in order to address the problems private assumes that the private sector can attract skilled
of poor or ineffectual relationships among the relevant service providers and that users are able to measure the
government authorities and a general lack of capacity of quality of the services provided. As experience has shown,
both the Directorate of Animal Resources and Veterinary in some areas – especially in extensive livestock production
Board professionals to navigate the policy process. systems in sub-Saharan Africa – the government sector does
provide qualified veterinarians. However, even in the public
Indeed, the Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture and Veterinary sector, only a limited number of trained veterinarians are
willing to work in pastoral livestock production systems
Board have singularly failed to obtain support for legislative
with high livestock populations, given their remoteness
change from the Ministry of Finance Planning and
(39). Worse still, corruption and the misuse of public
Economic Development. Nor have they managed to build a
funds have completely undermined government capacity to
coalition with local government and farmers’ organisations
provide veterinary services (40, 41). Therefore, any policy
to support veterinary-related legislation in general. Given
option intended to enhance the performance of a national
these governance challenges, which are inherent in the
veterinary system in sub-Saharan Africa should address the
provision of veterinary services in many countries, and
following issues:
the inefficiencies highlighted in the specific cases of Kenya
and Uganda, the question that must be asked is: how can – improving the relationship between para-professionals
governments better manage and deliver veterinary services? and professional veterinarians
Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 36 (1)
– ensuring that women and herdsmen have access to
livestock extension services
– supporting public veterinary systems in pastoral areas
– investing in para-professional education
– empowering farmers to measure the quality of services.
Improving the relationship between para-
professionals and professional veterinarians
The results from the TCE analysis of veterinary services
delivery in Kenya and Uganda show that para-professional
services are needed because they offer the care and attention
clients require and because they are located closer to
clients compared to veterinarians, which minimises travel
costs and transaction costs. Veterinarians, on the other
hand, are valued for their technical expertise (29). These
results suggest that, if a service is characterised by a high
level of repeat transactions (transaction intensity) and a
high degree of care intensity, the para-professional system
has a comparative advantage over the veterinary system.
However, if a service requires technical skills, professional
veterinarians have the advantage. In the case of clinical
services with mixed attributes, para-professionals alone
cannot be relied upon to provide these services (29).
But neither can farmers rely only upon veterinarians,
because there are not enough veterinarians to provide the
veterinary services needed (42). A referral system or an
integrated veterinary system, in which para-professionals
and professional veterinarians work together, is the most
effective, since most of these services have mixed attributes.
Indeed, results from the TCE analysis show that the use of
para-professional services by livestock farmers is positively
related to the availability of veterinarians, and the use of
professional veterinary services is positively related to the
availability of para-professionals (29). In addition, as shown
in Figure 1, positive interactions between para-professionals
and qualified veterinarians lead to improvements in the
quality of veterinary services provided by para-professionals
(35). Therefore, any intervention aimed at improving the
management of veterinary services needs to consider the
relationship between professional veterinarians and para-
professionals.
One example of making use of this relationship would
be to strengthen referral arrangements. Referrals between
veterinarians and para-professionals can be improved
by placing para-professionals under the supervision of
veterinarians, expanding mobile phone ownership among
para-professionals, supporting the formation of para-
professional associations, and investing in short-term
training (34). The establishment of veterinary and para-
professional associations is useful in forging a sense of
unity, professionalism, and pride in one’s local reputation,
as well as in creating links between para-professionals and
veterinarians (43, 44, 45).
283
Ensuring that women and herdsmen have
access to livestock extension services
Although women, children and young people the world
over are known to play a key role in livestock production,
including animal healthcare, they have limited access to
extension services (46, 47, 48). Most extension programmes,
especially in pastoral livestock production systems,
mainly reach out to men or ‘household heads’, leaving
out herdsmen, women and children, despite the fact that
they play an influential role in the provision of veterinary
services (36). Ilukor et al. (29) demonstrated that women
and herdsmen, in particular, play a crucially important
role in the detection and treatment of livestock diseases.
Therefore, veterinary extension services should focus not
only on household heads, but must also take into account
all those involved in livestock management, nutrition and
animal healthcare (in the Kenyan and Ugandan situation,
this includes female household members and herdsmen).
This will help to ensure the timely detection, reporting,
treatment and control of disease.
In other situations, the focus could be different. The
message emerging from process-based analysis is that it is
important to understand who is involved in livestock care,
what role they play and their level of decision-making in the
health and welfare of the animals in question.
Supporting public veterinary systems
in pastoral areas
Private-sector veterinarians and para-professionals trained
in veterinary science have come to play an important role in
intensive livestock production systems since the withdrawal
of the government (34, 35). However, this is not the case in
pastoral livestock production systems (18). Experience in
Kenya and Uganda has shown that the market failures there
could not be overcome. The author’s findings also indicate
that the effort to close this gap by promoting CAHWs, most
of whom have no formal training and limited informal
training, has proven to be a rather problematic response
to this issue. This is especially the case when these service
providers are expected to fulfil a major role in providing
curative services, as this may lead to inefficient use or
potentially dangerous misuse of veterinary drugs (35).
As shown in Figure 1, para-professionals without formal
training performed below required standards when it came
to prescribing drugs. Although those who had undertaken
some formal veterinary training as part of their social
sciences or agricultural training performed better than
informally trained para-professionals, their performance
was below that of those trained in veterinary medicine.
In addition, the quality of veterinary services provided
to pastoralists was of low quality, in comparison to those
provided to intensive livestock production systems (Fig. 1).
This is attributed to the fact that most para-professionals in
pastoral systems (CAHWs) have no formal education.
284
These results suggest that stronger government involvement
is required in the provision of veterinary services to pastoral
or extensive livestock systems. The study indicates that
there are more government veterinarians in the intensive
livestock system than in pastoral systems because of the
difficulty in attracting and retaining veterinary staff in remote
pastoral areas. Leonard et al. (42) show that veterinarians
are difficult to keep and to motivate, and they require
higher wages than para-professionals who hold diplomas
in veterinary medicine. The results of the present study,
shown in Table I, indicate that such para-professionals are
a viable alternative to veterinarians with university degrees,
because they provide a quality of service very similar to that
of veterinarians who hold a degree in veterinary medicine.
Thus, considering the fact that veterinarians with degrees
are not easily attracted to work in remote pastoral areas (36),
governments should consider recruiting para-professionals
who hold diplomas in veterinary science (veterinary nurses
and technicians), to work in pastoral areas.
Investing in para-professional education
Para-professionals play a significant role in providing
veterinary services to livestock communities, both in
intensive and extensive livestock systems. However, in the
extensive systems of many developing countries, the quality
of the service provided by many para-professionals is low,
because they have not received sufficient training and
do not have the requisite skills (34, 35). The shortage of
skilled providers has adversely affected the market demand
for veterinary services because farmers tend to treat the
animals by themselves instead of seeking the services of the
service providers. Indeed, 52% of the farmers interviewed
in both Kenya and Uganda said they would treat a sick
animal on their farm by themselves because they believe
they can perform the task just as well as the untrained para-
professionals and are unwilling to pay a premium to service
providers (29, 36). This results in the market for trained
para-professionals and veterinarians becoming too small
and fragile to sustain their incomes (29, 30).
The shortage of skilled veterinary service providers in
countries such as Uganda and Kenya can be linked to a
Table I
Clinical diagnosis and drug prescription services in Uganda:
a comparative assessment of the quality of the services
provided by i) veterinarians and ii) para-professionals trained in
veterinary medicine
Average percentage scores
Type of service p-value
Para-
Veterinarians
professionals
Clinical diagnosis 53% 58% 0.962
Drug prescription 99% 98% 0.998
Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 36 (1)
structural adjustment programme that led to a cut in the
number of para-professionals and the ceasing of automatic
recruitment of veterinarians (18). As a result, enrolment in
veterinary training programmes declined and some para-
professional veterinary training institutions were forced
to close. The veterinary training institute at Entebbe in
Uganda, for instance, closed down and, even today, there
is no institution training para-professionals in veterinary
medicine in Uganda. Even in countries such as Kenya,
which do still train para-professionals in veterinary
medicine, a majority if not all of the students intend to
work in intensive livestock production systems. Part of the
problem is that most training institutions are situated in
geographical regions where intensive livestock production
is practised.
The number of veterinary para-professionals and veterinary
nurses/technicians in areas of extensive livestock production
could be increased by encouraging veterinary colleges to
establish training centres in these areas. This approach could
have considerable potential to increase enrolment rates
because the costs of access would be significantly reduced
(49). In addition, development partners and governments
could establish scholarship programmes targeting students
from marginal livestock-producing areas who wish to train
as para-professionals. A similar scholarship programme is
being implemented in Uganda by the Ministry of Health to
support human resource development in the provision of
human healthcare services in hard-to-reach and marginal
areas (50). Such an intervention for animal health would
ensure that marginal areas had sufficient qualified veterinary
staff to offer quality veterinary services. If this does not
happen, the livestock sectors in those areas will continue
to be disadvantaged by unqualified service providers who
tend to misuse animal drugs; moreover, disease outbreaks,
delays in disease reporting and surveillance challenges will
persist. This will inflict significant losses on farmers, on
human healthcare systems and on the economy.
Empowering farmers to measure the quality of
services
Much of the attention given to improving the delivery and
governance of veterinary services has focused on good
veterinary legislation, and on getting the ‘right’ veterinary
system, to ensure a strong chain of command in veterinary
services delivery (6, 51). The role of farmers and livestock
producers has either been ignored or received little
attention. Yet their role is of particular importance, as a
result of the paradigm shift in veterinary services delivery
from the public to the private sector, or to private–public
partnerships (52). Van Veen and de Haan (53) argue that
farmers and farmer associations should play a much greater
role in initiating and maintaining veterinary legislation, as
well as in demanding quality veterinary services. Having
strong veterinary legislation with good enforcement and
Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 36 (1) 285

effective veterinary systems is necessary to improve the
delivery of veterinary services, but it is not enough. It is also
necessary that farmers be able to participate in the animal
health market to ensure the sustainability of the veterinary
system.
One of the main challenges for farmers is that they are not
easily able to measure the quality of services that they receive
from veterinary service providers (54). It is important,
therefore, to develop and test tools, such as the animal
medical cards referred to previously, that will enable them
to improve their own knowledge and skills and thereby
equip them to assess the work of these service providers.
A study by Ilukor and Birner (35) showed that using an
animal medical card enables farmers to assess the quality of
service they receive from veterinary service providers and to
make those who provide poor-quality services accountable.
This tool can also help in keeping records of the treatment
history of the animal and monitoring antimicrobial
agents. In France, the French Veterinary Association has
developed the VETELEVAGE software package to monitor
the prescription and use of medicines at the farm level.
The computerised register is shared by the farmer and the
veterinarian. Veterinary interventions and prescriptions,
as well as the farmer’s interventions and treatments
administered, are captured. The application makes it easy
to monitor herd performance, treatment protocols and
antibiotic prescriptions (55).
prescription in these books. This tool could help farmers to
distinguish between the qualifications of different service
providers and the quality of services they offer. The tool
could also help to exclude non-educated para-professionals
from the marketplace, or at least reduce their numbers, and
thereby reduce competition.
Conclusion
Transaction cost analysis of veterinary services delivery in
Kenya and Uganda demonstrates that any given intervention
aimed at improving veterinary services delivery should
support:
i) a synergistic relationship between para-professionals
and professional veterinarians, through mutually beneficial
referral arrangements
ii) the establishment of public veterinary systems for
pastoral areas
iii) investment in the education of para-professionals
iv) the empowerment of farmers to be able to measure the
quality of services offered to them
v) access for women and herdsmen to livestock extension
services.

In developing countries, if farmers do not have computers,

the use of exercise books could be promoted. Farmers
would ask the service providers to write their diagnosis and

Améliorer la prestation de services vétérinaires en Afrique :

éclairage à partir d’une étude empirique basée sur les coûts de
transaction en Ouganda et au Kenya
J. Ilukor

Résumé
L’auteur propose une synthèse des principales conclusions d’un projet de
recherche consacré aux dispositifs institutionnels élaborés en Ouganda et au
Kenya pour encadrer la prestation des services de santé animale. Face à la
nécessité de trouver des solutions aux graves difficultés de gouvernance qui
entravent la prestation de services vétérinaires en Afrique, cette étude s’est
fondée sur la théorie des transactions économiques pour formuler quelques
recommandations sur les moyens d’améliorer la prestation de ces services et de
286 Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 36 (1)

minimiser les risques affectant la production animale, y compris ceux qui peuvent
menacer la santé publique, à savoir les zoonoses.
Les principales recommandations de l’étude sont les suivantes : i) les pays à
faible revenu et à revenu intermédiaire devraient s’investir dans la création d’un
environnement propice à la coopération entre les vétérinaires professionnels
et les para-professionnels vétérinaires, afin d’assurer la notification rapide,
le traitement et la prophylaxie des maladies animales ; ii) les prestations de
services vétérinaires de proximité ne doivent pas se limiter aux seuls « chefs
de famille » mais s’adresser également aux autres membres des foyers (les
épouses et les enfants) ainsi qu’aux gardiens des troupeaux; iii) une mobilisation
forte des pouvoirs publics est nécessaire pour assurer la prestation de services
vétérinaires au sein des systèmes d’élevage pastoral ou extensif, dans la mesure
où les forces spontanées du marché ont échoué à attirer les vétérinaires libéraux
et les para-professionnels qualifiés du secteur privé dans ces territoires ; iv) les
éleveurs doivent disposer des moyens de demander des comptes aux prestataires
de services, ce qui suppose de concevoir et de tester des outils leur permettant
d’évaluer la qualité des services rendus et de vérifier les qualifications des
différents prestataires de services ; v) l’investissement dans l’enseignement de la
médecine vétérinaire est d’une importance capitale pour garantir que les effectifs
des personnels vétérinaires qualifiés sont suffisants pour assurer une prestation
de services adéquate aux éleveurs.

Mots-clés
Afrique – Économie des coûts de transition – Kenya – Ouganda – Prestation de services
– Services vétérinaires

Mejora de la prestación de servicios veterinarios en África: ideas

resultantes de la aplicación empírica de los costos de transacción
en Uganda y Kenia
J. Ilukor

Resumen
El autor resume las conclusiones de un proyecto de investigación en el que
se estudiaron los dispositivos institucionales destinados a prestar servicios
zoosanitarios en Uganda y Kenia. Dada la necesidad de encontrar soluciones
para los omnipresentes problemas de buen gobierno que lastran la prestación de
servicios veterinarios en África, en el estudio se aplicó la teoría de la economía
de transacción para formular una serie de recomendaciones sobre la manera
de mejorar la prestación de dichos servicios y reducir al mínimo los riesgos para
la producción ganadera, en particular aquellos que entrañen una amenaza
para la salud humana, como las zoonosis.
Las recomendaciones más destacadas son las siguientes: i) los países de nivel
bajo o medio de renta deben invertir en la creación de condiciones que favorezcan
la relación entre los veterinarios profesionales y los paraprofesionales, con objeto
de lograr una mayor puntualidad en la notificación, el tratamiento y el control
de las enfermedades animales; ii) la prestación de servicios de divulgación
veterinaria no debe ir dirigida únicamente a los «cabezas de familia», sino
también a los demás miembros de la unidad familiar (esposa e hijos, por ejemplo)
y a los encargados de cuidar de los rebaños; iii) en sistemas de producción
ganadera pastoral o extensiva la prestación de servicios veterinarios exige una
Rev. Sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 36 (1) 287

fuerte participación del sector público, puesto que los mecanismos de mercado
no han servido para atraer a veterinarios profesionales y a paraprofesionales
cualificados del sector privado para que trabajen en esos sectores; iv) es preciso
habilitar a los pequeños productores para que sean exigentes con los proveedores
de servicios, elaborando y aplicando experimentalmente herramientas que los
capaciten para enjuiciar la calidad de los servicios que reciben y comprobar las
cualificaciones de los distintos proveedores de servicios; v) es esencial invertir
en la enseñanza de la veterinaria a fin de lograr que haya una dotación suficiente
de veterinarios cualificados para ofrecer servicios veterinarios a los productores.

Palabras clave
África – Economía de los costos de transacción – Kenia – Prestación de servicios –
Servicios veterinarios – Uganda.

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