title: [The organization of veterinary services in African animal husbandry systems: chances for the exchange of interdisciplinary learning processes].
abstract: The structure of the veterinary services to date hinders--together with massive intervention in the land tenure systems and the animal keepers' rights in arid and semi-arid areas--the future organization of productive animal-keeping systems adapted to the ecological conditions. The consensus of the findings of research in the social as well as in the natural sciences, is that state (agrarian) policies and international development cooperation have led to centralism and authoritarian administrations which formalize formerly informal, locally specific rules for securing the health of the animals and the maintenance of grazing and water resources. As a result, the animal-keeping groups have lost their rights, social conflicts arose and the environment suffered. Thus, decentralization, subsidarity and--above all--comprehensive participation on the part of the animal keepers are regarded as the guidelines for the future organization of state and/or private services for maintaining the health of the animals. Thereby, the planning at the various administrative levels is faced by great challenges in view of the progressing differentiation in the animal-keeping systems (e.g. peri-urban systems; urban absentee herd owners; marginalized, subsistence-oriented households).
authors.affiliation: Institut für Rurale Entwicklung, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kirk
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000639:trends*; D000818:Animals; D007391:International Cooperation; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends
vernacular_title: Zur Organisation von Veterinärdiensten in afrikanischen Tierhaltungssystemen: Chancen zur Umsetzung interdisziplinärer Lernprozesse.