Bridging the gap in rural veterinary services

Livestock disease outbreak is devastating among smallholder farmers who contribute 80 percent of Nigeria’s livestock production and supply.

Past approach to get life-saving animal vaccines into rural communities through a community vaccinators’ model was highly successful but limited to delivering the intra-ocular Newcastle vaccines, leaving other animal health needs unmet.

Bridging the gap in access required a change in regulation to enable the Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) programme. The CAHW programme is demand-driven, adopted and initiated by State departments of veterinary services where they see a need to plug gaps in service provision. 

This brief describes Propcom Mai-karfi's experience of scaling up the CAHW model in Nigeria.