86410 Livestock Data Survey and household level data. District level data are the least used, though they are critical to of participants in the 12th design projects, programmes and policies in the livestock sector. For instance, unless Livestock Donor Group Meeting information is available on the distribution of The Livestock Data Innovation Project cattle across districts of a country, it is difficult conducted an online ‘data’ survey among to plan and implement any animal vaccination participants in the 12th Inter-Agency Donor campaign. Group meeting, held at AU-IBAR, Nairobi, on 10- Over 50% of the respondents use livestock data 12 May 2011. Participants in the meeting / indicators either on a daily or a weekly basis, included donors, NGOs, international while another 21% use them at least once a organizations, university / research institutions month. Overall, 84% of respondents use and some private companies and consultants. livestock data on a regular basis, and only 6% of The objective of the survey was to identify the them use livestock data occasionally. concerns of users of livestock-related data / indicators, including what types of data they Sources of livestock data use and where the strengths and gaps in the available livestock data exist. Ad hoc reports, papers and articles as well as international databases, such as FAOSTAT or the 34 participants in the Donor Meeting responded World Animal Health Information System of OiE, to the survey, of which 42% were from are the major sources of livestock data / international organizations, 18% from indicators, being used by 89% and 85% of universities / research institutes, 14% from respondents respectively. NGOs and about 12% were donors, with the remaining working either in the private sector Data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture / or for some regional institution. Livestock and by the National Statistical Office are also widely used, by 67% and 53% of the Overall, whilst the availability and quality of respondents respectively. However, only 18% livestock data / indicators in Africa is rated as and 6% of the respondents indicate the Ministry ‘very important’ by 79% of respondents, more of Agriculture / Livestock and the Statistical than 90% of them ‘don’t agree’ that available Office as their primary source of data. This livestock data are sufficient for their livestock- highlights issues in livestock data related activities. communication and dissemination at national level, as international databases — which are Use of livestock data the first source of data for the majority of respondents — are populated with data Participants in the survey were asked to rank collected by national authorities. their four top uses of livestock data / indicators: project formulation and implementation is the most frequent use of Gaps between demand and supply Livestock Data Innovation in Africa BRIEF livestock-related data (71% of respondents), of livestock data followed by monitoring and evaluation (59%), and research & analysis and programme Answers to the survey indicate a consistent gap formulation and implementation (56% each). between the use / demand of livestock data and their supply / availability. Livestock stakeholders use primarily regional and national level data, as well as community Numbers for Livelihood Enhancement www.africalivestockdata.org Production and productivity data are most in problems, though still only 34% and 27% of demand (rated as most useful to their work by respondents contend that they are of good over 68% and 59% of respondents respectively), quality. followed by livestock inventories and input data Overall, livestock data / indicators are (both >40%). Between 20% and 35% of stake- considered as ‘not available / poor’ in over 54% holders use animal disease, marketing, of the cases, and ‘available but of low quality’ consumption, price, natural resource-related in another 33% of circumstances. Only 13% of and trade data, while only 12% state that breed respondents consider that, on average, good data are ‘most useful’ to their work. data / indicators are available. Types of livestock data / indicators ranked as 'most useful' by livestock data users Lessons and the way forward 75% The results of this survey are not necessarily % of data users 50% representative of overall stakeholders data concerns, as they are based on a small and non- 25% random sample of livestock data stakeholders. However, they definitely support the idea that, 0% whilst livestock data / indicators are essential Productivity Production Marketing Trade Price Inputs Breeds Livestock inventory Animal diseases Natural resources Consumption for the largest majority of stakeholders, rarely the available data / indicators are sufficient for efficiently formulating and implementing projects and programmes as well as for conducting research. The Livestock Data Innovation Project, in However, the ‘most useful’ data/indicators for partnership with the African Union – Inter stakeholders are not always available and, when African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), available, rarely they are of good quality, which has been facilitating cooperation and highlights a major gap between the demand and collaboration between major livestock data supply of livestock-related data. users and suppliers — in Niger, Tanzania and The graph below shows the proportion of Uganda — to contribute to enhancing the stakeholders that consider relevant livestock quantity / quality of livestock data / indicators data /indicator as: (1) not available / poor available for public and private sector decision- (darkest segment of the bars); (2) available but making. of low quality; (3) available and good (lightest segments). For further information please visit: Availability and quality of livestock data / www.africalivestockdata.org indicators as ranked by livestock data users Or contact: 100% Nancy Morgan, FAO-World Bank nmorgan@worldbank.org % of data users 75% 50% Alison Ring, American University, Washington alison.ring@american.edu 25% 0% Trade Disease Inputs Natural res. Productivity Marketing Production L.stock invent. Prices Breeds Consumption not available / poor Livestock Data Innovation in Africa BRIEF available but of low quality available and good Marketing, input, natural resource-related and consumption data / indicators are considered by most data users (> 70%) as unavailable or, when available, to be of low quality. Conversely, trade and disease data are those most frequently available and with less quality Numbers for Livelihood Enhancement www.africalivestockdata.org