A fund specifically aimed to facilitate development of the livestock sector in the East African Community (EAC) is on the cards.
The Community Livestock Fund will be established once the EAC Livestock Bill, 2021 is passed by the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) and assented.
It shall be used to facilitate regional and national institutions conducting livestock, wildlife and primate research.
The Fund, a draft of the proposed law indicates, will also be spent to facilitate detection, prevention and control of transboundary diseases.
The Community Livestock Fund is also geared to coordinate and strengthen national animal health institutions in the EAC partner states.
Besides the jointly-owned Fund, each partner state would be required to establish and maintain its own disaster response fund for the livestock industry.
The national Livestock Disaster Response Fund shall be used to assist pastoralists in a respective member country.
"It will deal with calamities caused by drought,floods, transboundary animal diseases or other animal disease outbreaks", the draft says.
Under the Community Livestock Fund, each EAC partner states shall promote the insurance of livestock resources in order to enhance the resilience of livestock keeping communities.
The Bill, moved by a South Sudan lawmaker as a Private Motion bill, will address economic losses due to livestock diseases in the region.
The East African Community Livestock Bill, 2020 will also provide for the transboundary movement of livestock within the region.
An Eala member from South Sudan Dr. Wida Jeremiah Odok has been granted leave to introduce the proposed law in the coming plenary sitting of the House.
She said that the outbreaks of transboundary animal diseases were to blame for economic losses to pastoralists and livestock farmers .
"Such diseases, among other things, cause a negative impact on livestock, agriculture,trade and food security", she said.
She further remarked that numerous challenges continue to adversely affect livelihoods of pastoralists in the arid and semi-arid lands within the EAC.
It is estimated that livestock accounted for nearly 40 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the EAC partner states.
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