Transforming Access to Veterinary Services in Georgia

Abstract

The south of Georgia is an ethnically-diverse, semi-mountainous region in the Caucasus with a rural population of 700,000 that relies heavily on livestock farming. Sheep, dairy and beef cattle farming, mostly as a family-scale enterprise, provides a mainstay subsistence income for 95 percent of these small-scale farmers of whom half are living on less than $1.25 a day. Maintaining livestock health is crucial for the resilience of these families’ livelihoods. This depends on their access to reliable veterinary services, products and information. This case study concerns an initiative that the Alliances Lesser Caucasus Programme (also known as Alliances) implemented by Mercy Corps Georgia and funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), undertook in Georgia. Alliances has been working in three isolated mountainous regions since 2008 using the M4P approach to improve the livelihoods of rural households. By March 2016, Alliances was able to report that 105,617 farmer households in the programme area alone were directly benefiting from better access to veterinary services. At least forty percent of these farmers were women. The benefits reported by farmers – healthier, more productive livestock that fetch better prices at market – go well beyond the regions where Alliances’ directly operated. Roki has rolled the model out in other parts of Georgia, and when copying by other companies is included, Alliances calculate that over 466,299 farmer households now have better access to veterinary services.