Policy Processes for Veterinary Services in Africa

This is the report of the first of three phases in a training programme being run between September 2004 and February 2005. It is a collaboration between the Institutional and Policy Support Team (ISPT) of AU-IBAR and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK.

The three phases are:

1. Understanding policy processes – training workshop, Mombasa, Kenya, September 20-22, 2004.
2. Case study analysis of a particular policy process by course participants (October to December 2004).
3. Strategies for policy change. This will occur at a workshop in South Africa, January 31 – February 3, 2005, where the group will review the case study results and examine their implications. Training will focus on strategies for influencing policy.

Participants in this training programme come from a number of east and southern African countries, and are mid-senior level veterinarians and policymakers (see list of participants, Appendix 4). All participants have committed to the full programme, including the preparation of the case study.

By the end of the phase reported in this document, course participants have:

• a conceptual understanding of policy processes;
• be able to use a series of applied research methods for understanding policy processes;
• be able to apply this practically to the animal health sector; and
• worked up a research case study plan for phase 2 (see below).

The phase one training workshop was facilitated by Professor Ian Scoones and Dr William Wolmer, both from the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex, UK), in collaboration with members of staff of the CAPE unit “Institutional and Policy Support Team” (IPST) at AU-IBAR.

The workshop was informal in approach, combining a limited number of presentations with group exercises and discussion (see programme, below). The aim was to draw on the extensive experience of participants, allowing participants to reflect on this in the light of conceptual understandings of policy processes. The overall aim was to develop a set of practical skills which can be made use of in work settings following the training programme.