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Prior to decentralization and privatization, in most sub-Saharan African countries veterinary services were predominantly delivered by the public sector. Changes brought about by the reforms include assigning the private sector the responsibility for delivery of services considered to be private goods, such as clinical services (e.g. diagnosis and treatment) and production and distribution of drugs and vaccines. On the other hand, the public sector retains responsibility for human health protection services (i.e. meat inspection, quarantine, and quality control). Several preventive services have spill-over effects. Hence, they are either delivered by the public sector or funded collectively by the affected livestock owners (Smith 2001). However, certain goods and services have mixed public and private characteristics. For example, vaccination to control zoonotic diseases such as anthrax and rabies has a strong private service component but has beneficial effects on human health. Consequently, public veterinary services often take responsibility for control of these zoonoses. Thus, the reforms distinguish between public and private goods to prescribe channels of veterinary services delivery (Umali et al. 1994). A review of the literature reveals that the reforms of veterinary services delivery have yielded mixed results. On the positive side, some studies indicate that the availability and use of veterinary drugs are significantly higher in developing countries that have privatized services and drug supplies than in countries maintaining government monopolies (Sen and Chander 2003). After reforms, tsetse-fly control in Zimbabwe and Botswana and vaccination in Morocco have significantly improved, and the corresponding cost has been considerably reduced (Holden 1999). A number of studies indicate that poor people are willing to pay for clinical and preventive veterinary services (Ahuja 2004, Leonard 2004). Reforms appear to have benefitted less-skilled veterinary service providers such as para-veterinarians, technical assistants (TAs), and community animal health workers (CAHWs). According to Woodford (2004), in subsistence and extensive livestock production systems, less-qualified personnel adapted better to reforms in delivery of services than veterinarians. Such para-veterinarians acquire skills through practice, are often members of the same ethnic group as their clients, reside in communities where livestock is found, have lower income aspirations, and can handle 80– 90% of the veterinary interventions in extensive livestock production systems. On the negative side, Turkson and Brownie (1999) reported only limited evidence that privatization has improved veterinary services delivery in developing countries.
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