Participatory evaluation of delivery of animal health care services by community animal health workers in Karamoja region of Uganda

Abstract

AimAn evaluation exercise was carried out to assess the performance of Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) in the delivery of animal health care services in Karamoja region, identify capacity gaps and recommend remedial measures.Materials & methodsParticipatory methods were used to design data collection tools. Questionnaires were administered to 204 CAHWs, 215 farmers and 7 District Veterinary Officers (DVOs) to collect quantitative data. Seven DVOs and 1 Non Government Organization (NGO) representative were interviewed as key informants and one focus group discussion was conducted with a farmer group in Nakapiripirit to collect qualitative data. Questionnaire data was analyzed using SPSS version 19. Key messages from interviews and the focus group discussion were recorded in a notebook and reported verbatim.Results70% of the farmers revealed that CAHWs are the most readily available animal health care service providers in their respective villages. CAHWs were instrumental in treatment of sick animals, disease surveillance, control of external parasites, animal production, vaccination, reporting, animal identification, and performing minor surgeries. Regarding their overall performance 88.8%(191/215) of the farmers said they were impressed. The main challenges faced by the CAHWs were inadequate facilitation, lack of tools and equipments, unwillingness of government to integrate them into the formal extension system, poor information flow, limited technical capacity to diagnose diseases, unwillingness of farmers to pay for services and sustainability issues.Conclusions and recommendationsCAHWs remain the main source of animal health care services in Karamoja region and their services are largely satisfactory. The technical deficits identified require continuous capacity building programs, close supervision and technical backstopping. For sustainability of animal health care services in the region continuous training and strategic deployment of paraprofessionals that are formally recognised by the traditional civil service to gradually replace CAHWs is recommended.

Improving Village Animal Health Worker participation in national disease surveillance systems: A case study from Cambodia

“…Poor information flow and delays in disease reporting have been identified as challenges in VAHW systems (Bugeza et al, ). These challenges result in severe consequences affecting livestock health and production, farmer and VAHW livelihoods and morale for future reporting (Bugeza et al, ).…”

“…Poor information flow and delays in disease reporting have been identified as challenges in VAHW systems (Bugeza et al, ). These challenges result in severe consequences affecting livestock health and production, farmer and VAHW livelihoods and morale for future reporting (Bugeza et al, ). Further research is recommended to determine reporting behaviours for specific disease outbreaks in different species, as 95% of VAHW stated that they report to a district animal health authority official when livestock disease outbreaks occur, but only 45% contacted their district animal health authority official in the last FMD outbreak.…”

“…If trained and supervised appropriately, VAHW can assist district animal health authorities in reporting and conducting investigations and diagnostic sampling, conducted via more regular liaison with NAHPRI investigators. This should ensure disease reports including clinical presentations and images of any lesions, plus collection of samples for definitive diagnostics, are completed more rigorously and efficiently (Bugeza et al, ). However, VAHWs need to be provided with more training, equipment and incentivized to undertake these tasks.…”

“…These small farms are responsible for feeding a substantial proportion of the global population, and in these communities, livestock are a major asset and play a key role in poverty alleviation and household food security (Lowder, Skoet, & Raney, ; Rapsomanikis, ; Stratton et al, ). However, globally, many smallholder farming communities have inadequate access to official veterinary services, due to isolation, financial restrictions, civil unrest and limited capabilities of some national veterinary services (Allport, Mosha, Bahari, Swai, & Catley, ; Bugeza et al, ; Catley et al, ). In developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, para‐veterinarians serve as an important link to veterinary services, providing basic livestock health advice and treatments (Bugeza et al, ; Catley et al, ; Mugunieri, Irungu, & Omiti, ).…”

“…Therefore, in combination with the training they receive, VAHWs can be pivotal in provision of basic disease prevention and treatment services, contributing to the food and economic security of their community. In some countries, VAHWs also provide haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) and foot‐and‐mouth disease (FMD) vaccinations and reproductive management advice (Allport et al, ; Bugeza et al, ; Catley et al, ).…”