A CASE STUDY: CONTROL OF PESTE DES PETITS RUMINANTS AND SHEEP & GOAT POX USING PPP IN ETHIOPIA

INTRODUCTION

The European Union funded a project in Ethiopia under the Ethiopian Veterinary Association Grant (EVA Grant). The project targeted the Livestock value chain to accelerate Ethiopia’s effort to establish a functional Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative, delivering veterinary services in rural communities. An agreement was facilitated between the Ethiopia Veterinary Authority and the Private Veterinarians to provide the veterinary services for the public.

THE FOCUS

This was a new system in Ethiopia, so it was piloted in the Oromia and Somali Region and 3 woreda councils were selected from each of the 2 regional states. The woredas were selected based on livestock population, distribution of the focal diseases, accessibility, and the weight of pastoral activity (and interphase area). The total number of small ruminants within the 6 woredas councils was over 4.4 million flock size. This provided a good template for the piloted PPP intervention to potentially be replicated in other areas in Ethiopia at the end of the project.

Two of the several objectives of the PPP intervention were to facilitate the participation of the private sector in developing delivery networks in pastoral regions, and interface with regions to extend veterinary services to remote areas while the second objective was to demonstrate that the Private Sector can and has the incentive to lead veterinary delivery, which was at the time assumed to be the sole responsibility of the public sector. The focal diseases were Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and sheep & goat pox (SGP) in Small Ruminants. At the time, the prevalence of both diseases had a huge economic impact on the region. Ethiopia had recently developed a national strategy to control PPR and SGP, so piloting the PPP intervention was to serve as an evidence base, a good methodology for other projects that later came up like the HEARD project.

THE PROCEDURE

An expert in PPP establishment and implementation was engaged to facilitate the process. A consultative forum was also established to allow for engagement between the resource holders in the public and private sectors to meet and agree on the levels of commitment by all parties involved. The forum also allowed the executive leaders to meet on the modalities for operationalizing the PPP initiative. The forum was also used to facilitate meetings with potential implementers, including the private veterinarians after which the successful private veterinarians were selected in a bidding process.

After the bidding was done and the Private veterinarians selected from these 2 regions, an agreement was signed with the intention that the Private veterinarians would be paid on a milestone basis.

RESULTS

Before the vaccination campaigns, the National Animal Health and Diagnosis Laboratory?(NAHDIC) carried out a pre-vaccination serosurveillance to determine the baseline immunity level of the small ruminants, within the six selected woredas, against PPR and SGP.? Over 4.2 million small ruminants were vaccinated against the two focal diseases. This is over 96% vaccination coverage for PPR and SGP. To confirm this, sero-monitoring and evaluation were conducted. The post-vaccination sero-monitoring was conducted at the end of the campaigns and the results were computed against the results from the pre-vaccination sero-monitoring activity that was conducted initially. The result showed a movement of the immunity level from a baseline result of 55% to the endline progress result of 92%. The acceptable immunity level is 80% and so the PPP initiative was a success.

LESSON LEARNED

Several lessons could be seen clearly from this initiative as the proposed result was achieved outside the 92% immunity level.

CHALLENGES

Of course, several challenges were reported.

CONCLUSION AND QUESTION.

Overall, this was a successful PPP intervention. Two questions bogue the mind on this case, and we would love your views on it:

1.????? What category of PPP do you consider this to be?

2.????? What’s your experience with this type of PPP approach?

3.????? Why was this initiative successful?

Please do share!

Leave your responses in the comment section!

See you in the next edition……

Jointly written by Gbenga Ariyo and Ogheneovo Ugbebor

Ugbebor Ogheneovo Ugbebor is a market systems development (MSD) expert with Master’s Degree in Social Business & Entrepreneurship and Operations & Supply Chain. She brings over 15 years of experience in national and multi-country development programs across various donors. As a Managing Partner at Ikore, Ovo leads numerous business interests, including consultancies focused on nature-based solutions, food systems, and economic growth.

Dr. Gbenga Ariyo is an Epidemiologist and Market Development Expert with over 15 years of experience. He currently serves as a Technical Lead and Advisor at Ikore International Development. Dr. Ariyo is also a self-taught expert in Public-Private Partnerships, demonstrating a strong ability to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors to foster development and innovation.