National Consultancy to Study Community Willingness to Pay (WTP) for Vaccination Services against Livestock Diseases in Ethiopia

1. Introduction

The Ethiopian Veterinary Association (EVA) is an autonomous non-governmental, non-political and non-profit organization that acts on behalf of its members. It operates under the proclamation number, 1113/2019 issued to establish professional association. It is registered by the Ministry of Justice (Charities and Civil Societies Agency) with license number 0495 issued on July 3rd, 2019. EVA is established with the mission of advancing veterinary profession and creating an environment in which veterinary professionals benefit adequately while providing services to society and contributing to the emergence of efficient, effective and competitive livestock industry.

HEARD – is a European Union funded program designed to strengthen animal health services involving public and private sectors. The HEARD program aims to increase sustainable livestock productivity and improve the marketing of livestock products through enhancing quality and reliability of integrated public and private veterinary service delivery. As part of the EU-HEARD project, EVA aims to improve the quality of veterinary service delivery of the country by undertaking research studies in order to generate evidence on the existing gaps to inform decision makers for corrective actions. Key topics/research gaps to be studied under the HEARD project were identified and community’s willingness to pay for vaccination services is among the prioritized ones.

2. Background and Rationale

The quality of Veterinary Services of a country is an essential prerequisite for improved animal health and welfare, veterinary public health, food safety and hygiene and the protection of the environment. For developing countries, prophylactic vaccination remains the main feasible method of controlling livestock diseases. The government is providing free vaccination service for farmers for transboundary livestock disease such as peste des petits ruminants, lumpy skin disease, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, African horse sickness, sheep and goat pox and others. Vaccinations for former List-A diseases of the OIE are provided free of charge by the federal government. They are controlled by the federal veterinary services, but implemented by the regional states. These diseases are known for their potential for very serious and rapid spread, irrespective of national borders, serious socio-economic or public health consequence and are of major importance in the international trade of animals and animal products. On the other hand vaccination against former List-B disease is performed by the Regional States. They are often conducted as a response to an outbreak.

Livestock vaccines are relatively inexpensive and for diseases which cause livestock mortality, preventive vaccination usually makes economic sense; the benefit-cost ratio is usually very high if vaccination is properly planned and conducted. Private veterinary service providers still complain of unfair competition from State/public veterinary service delivery in properly carrying out vaccination. Except for poultry vaccines, there is no involvement of the private sector let alone to have competition (only service contracting). Provision of animal health service, at least at recovery cost, is indispensable for sustainability of intervention. Community participation, by devoting their financial and time resources, is crucial for the success and sustainability of such initiatives.

The Livestock owners’ willingness to pay for the public vaccination services will help to identify the level of private actors involvement in the provision of the service and the product and sets the momentum for Public private partnership initiatives in Veterinary service provision.

The main objective of this study is therefore to assess willingness of livestock producers to pay for vaccinations of prevailing livestock diseases.

3. General Scope of the Assignment

The consultancy service will be responsible to undertake in-depth study on community’s willingness to pay for vaccination services against livestock diseases. The study is considered to be of holistic and representative addressing different agro-ecological and livestock production systems of Ethiopia.

4. Organizational Relationships

The consultancy service will be answerable to the Project Coordinator of the EVA-HEARD grant and the majority of tasks will be undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, EU-HERAD Project staff and under the overall guidance of the Secretariat (EVA Manager) and Executive Board of EVA.

The consultancy service needs to prepare, submit and present an inception report before commencement of the actual work. The inception report should be focusing on the approach, methodology, work plan and outlines prepared to carry out the assignment.

The draft study report should be submitted at least 10 days before the end of the assignment to allow comments from the EVA and stakeholders to be incorporated before the end of the consultancy service’s assignment. The final study report will be presented by the consultancy service to relevant stakeholders to validate the output.

The following major tasks will be undertaken:

Familiarize himself/herself with the EVA and ILRI- EVA led HEARD grant, by reviewing its structure, objectives, expected results, activities, linkages, partners, documents generated, etc;
Under the overall guidance and supervision of and collaboration with the EVA Executive Board and Secretariat office, the consultancy service will define detailed objectives for the assignment and design data collection formats, methods to be employed and means of managing and analyzing the collected data/information;
In collaboration with the EVA Executive Board and Secretariat, determines the institutions to be visited/consulted for the assignment;
Conduct in-depth study, analysis and forward recommendations on farmers/pastoralists/agro-pastoralists willingness to pay for vaccination service.
Conduct economic analysis to determine the optimum price for vaccines and vaccination services.
Ensure the study covers different livestock production systems of the country
Discuss preliminary findings with EVA Executive Board, Secretariat and EVA-ILRI HEARD project staff members;
Compile and submit the electronic and 3 hard copies of the produced study final report;
Present the study finding and on the methodologies on WTP on an agreed review/validation workshop organized by EVA within 10 days of the final report submission;

6. Expected Output (Deliverables)

Detailed, in-depth study report and recommendations on willingness to pay for vaccination services by farmers, agro pastoralists and pastoralists
Findings and recommendations presented to stakeholders and the report validated;

7. Working arrangements and time schedule

The duty station will be at the head quarter of EVA, in front of British Embassy, Addis Ababa, and considerable visit to other relevant institutions cited under the organizational relationship will be required.

A total of 30 days is envisaged for the contract. The assignment shall commence in June, 2021 and should be completed within 30 days from the date of signature of the contract.

8. Qualifications and General Professional Experience

A team leader and senior consultants with a minimum MSc/PhD in veterinary medicine
The team leader must have a minimum of 10 years hands on experience in veterinary and animal health research, development and academia
The team needs to comprise senior consultants with a minimum of 7 years hands on experience in veterinary services and experiences of conducting similar studies.
The team should also comprise consultants with experience in economics, agricultural economics or other related fields.
Familiarity with the current governance and institutional arrangement of Ethiopian Veterinary services.
Familiarity with the international animal health standards and principles of OIE, FAO and WTO.
Experiences to national vaccination programs against livestock diseases and knowledge of public private partnership has an add value,
Proven experience in review and development of scientific studies
Proven Experience in preparation of similar documents and reports;
Demonstrated ability to work in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team of experts and information/data providers;
Working knowledge of the English language (speaking and writing);
Excellent organizational, planning and communication skills;
Proven experience in designing of practical and focused survey data collection, recording, management, analysis, interpretation and reporting formats;
Familiarity with the veterinary service delivery of the Ethiopian context;

9. Arrangement of Meetings

The consultancy service will make himself/herself available (at a date to be agreed mutually with the EVA) for a bilateral meeting to discuss on issues related to the assignment at the EVA Office. Moreover, the consultancy service will present inception report, study report and recommendation at a validation stakeholders’ workshop to be organized by the EVA prior to the final approval.

Application Procedure

Applicants are required to apply as a team. Individual applications will not be valid;
Applicants need to submit their credentials (detail CVs and academic credentials of team members, testimonials of previous experiences on related consultancy works);
Detail physical and financial plans need to be developed and submitted
All documents need to be submitted in sealed envelopes
Applications can only be made through either of the following means:

In person to

Ethiopian Veterinary Association, Secretariat Office
Yeka Sub City, Woreda 08, Togo Avenue Street, Around British Embassy

(2) Through the Association’s Postal address

Ethiopian Veterinary Association, Secretariat
P.O. Box: 2462

For more information please call: Phone No. +251 11 5525020 / +251 11 8697868

Applicants need to apply within 10 working days from the date of advertisement

Application through email will not be valid