Current Livestock Policies in Eastern and Central Africa

The paper is prepared on the basis of communications received from participants of the countries concerned as contained in their respective national reports prepared for the Seminar. Of the 26 countries invited to the Seminar, 17 dispatched their reports well in advance to enable their inclusion in this paper. The countries are : Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. All available information is grouped under each region within the framework of the Seminar. The East African Region includes the following countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Uganda, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, the Sudan and Tanzania with South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe as the 10 countries within the Southern African Region. The author! prepared the present paper in the light of the format proposed for the national reports; namely: importance of the livestock sector in the economy; livestock policies, the potential of the livestock sector, the main technical constraints, Institutional support, and, lastly, support for the livestock development markets. It was not possible to include all the available information in the present paper, however, the national reports are available and will be reproduced in its entirety in the proceedings of the seminar. The paper is aimed at outlining major policies and, especially, identifying main problems and deficiencies in the national livestock policies. These wil discussed at length during the Seminar.