Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Community participation and the delivery of veterinary services in Africa.
- Journal:
- Preventive veterinary medicine
- Year:
- 2001
- Authors:
- Catley, A & Leyland, T
- Affiliation:
- International Institute for Environment and Development · United Kingdom
Plain-English summary
This study looks at how involving local communities in veterinary services can affect animal health projects in Africa. It points out that different people, including veterinarians, have different ideas about what community participation means, which can make it hard to compare different projects and set realistic expectations. The paper highlights that projects where communities actively participate and take charge tend to have better long-term benefits for farmers and their animals. Overall, it suggests that encouraging strong community involvement is key to making these veterinary projects successful and sustainable.
Abstract
Community participation is now widely promoted as an important feature of aid projects in less-developed countries. However, definitions, uses and expectations of community participation vary considerably among professionals (including veterinarians). A lack of common understanding of community participation hinders the comparison of experiences between projects and can lead to false hopes regarding how community participation should be used and what it might deliver. This paper provides an overview of experiences with community participation in animal-health service development and research in Africa. By examining two types of community-based animal-health intervention, the paper also describes how community participation can vary in veterinary projects and relates this variation to project impact and sustainability. Projects that encourage types of community participation such as interactive participation and self-mobilisation are most likely to result in sustained benefits for livestock keepers.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11267692/