WINDHOEK – The pilot projects on the evaluation of the Millennium Challenge Account Namibia (MCA-N)’s Livestock Support Activity show sufficient potential, but need to be taken further to become meaningful for the communal farmers.
At large, the elen evaluated actions comprise a fairly balanced package of actions that together contribute to the objective of the Livestock Activity. This was said by Paul Sijssens, an independent consultant of CDP in the Netherlands, when he addressed the MCA-N Livestock Support Activity Workshop in the capital last week. The projects implemented piloted on a small scale the training of farmers in grassland management, animal husbandry and marketing. The survey on animal nutrition supports the importance of grassland management for the development of a sustainable market-oriented livestock production system. Originally the contract was only for the Livestock Marketing Efficiency Fund, but later the scope of the evaluation was expanded to include the construction of five State Veterinary Offices, the rehabilitation of two quarantine camps in the Zambezi region and the development of a livestock traceability system.
The overall goal of the evaluation was to assess the impact of the MCA-N Livestock Activity on the intended beneficiaries, mainly in terms of income or other quantifiable benefits. The evaluation took place while the project was being implemented. It consists of nine quarterly evaluation missions, observing the project activities as they are developing in the field. The assignment, therefore, took the form of a Real Time Evaluation (RTE). The evaluation of MCA-N’s Livestock Support Activity covered the following eleven actions:
1) Unleashing the potential of livestock sector in Oshana and Ohangwena Regions;
2) Development of export opportunities for beef products from Zambezi region;
3) Zero-epidemiological and parasite survey in the NCAs;
4) Baseline survey of animal nutrition in the NCAs;
5) Developing the livestock sector and income to livestock producers in the San conservancies of Tsumkwe Constituency;
6) Development of strategies, road map and plan of action and preparation of supporting documents to declare the??????????;
7) To ensure the NCAs are free of FMD lung sickness;
8) A study was completed on informal trade of beef/cattle in the NCAs;
9) Rehabilitation of two quarantine camps was completed as well as the development of a livestock traceability system in the NCAs. PLEASE NOTE I SEE ONLY NINE??????
The objective of the Livestock Activity of MCA-N can be described as “to contribute to the transformation of the livestock sector in the communal areas, towards efficient, market-oriented livestock production”. Against this background, and looking at the range of actions financed under the Livestock Activity, the supported sub-activities can be divided in three, each other reinforcing, intervention areas:
Livestock management aimed to improve the livestock management system in the NCAs from a mere keeping of animals to a market oriented animal production system, disease control. It also aimed to improve systems to control diseases like FMD and CBPP, marketing: aimed to improve the market opportunities for cattle and beef in the NCAs.