EC – Support to Animal Health in Afghanistan, with focus on the Western region 

With the ASAP-Broad based Livestock Development Programme, DCA-VET already had the opportunity to lay an important foundation for good veterinary care in the north and northwest of Afghanistan. Thanks to the new EC programme DCA-VET will be able to continue the work in the four northwest provinces for another three years.

Specific objectives of this EC project are :

•  To increase and improve the quality of veterinary services in the target Provinces, and to expand services to the more remote areas including the availability of these services to the Kuchi.

•  An improved coordination with the government, in order to build a strong link between the public and private animal health services

•  More facilities and a broader curriculum for DCA-VET's veterinary training centre in Charikar.

In the framework of the EC-programme, DCA-VET will train 32 new paravets and a number of Kuchi paravets. Also 60 basic veterinary workers will be trained of whom 20 are women and 10 Kuchi.

DCA-VET plans to have 33 new veterinary field units built as working place for the new paravets. Old VFUs will be repaired, when deemed necessary. All 163 VFUs in these four provinces will receive veterinary vaccines and medicines as support from DCA-VET. The VFUs will report on a monthly base about their animal health activities and about the prevention of contagious diseases in their district.

The VFUs will be gradually transformed to Livestock Service centres. Farmers then can approach the centres for Artificial Insemination, pregnancy diagnosis, laboratory testing on parasites, and the purchase of feed additives. This extension of services provides the VFUs with extra income. The ultimate goal is that at the end of the program the VFUs are completely self sustainable.

To reach a better collaboration with the Afghan government DCA-VET is also training VFU staff to participate in national research on contagious diseases and vaccination campaigns. Besides, in every district one VFU will be assigned to receive extra facilities. In this VFU, a district veterinarian will also be stationed who will keep contact with the provincial veterinary specialist.

During the past years, the Veterinary Training Centre Charikar has become the focal training centre for DCA-VET. EC funding is available for further improvement of Charikar's facilities. DCA-VET is also developing modules for additional courses and refresher training. One of the modules is training for ‘Veterinary Entrepreneurs'. After all, a VFU is a small business enterprise and thus it is important that the VFU staff can be trained to turn their VFU into a profit making business.

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Latest revision 02 July 2010