Hawassa university, in collaboration with ICP V project supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Addis Ababa, organized a policy dialogue on linking research, policy and practices of livestock development sector in Ethiopia involving both federal and regional stakeholders.
Dr. Tafesse Matewos, Vice President for Research and Collaboration at HU, underlined three critical points of focus for researchers while conducting studies: translation of the research findings into simple and understandable language for the end users, relevance or alignment of research agenda with what is actually on the ground, and sustainability. He also remarked that Ethiopia has not yet benefited from its large animal population in Africa which requires the need for stakeholders to work with researchers and universities to enhance productivity and ensure sustainable national development.
Professor Ajebu Nurfeta, a senior academic and researcher from the college of Agriculture in HU, presented findings of his team's research to assess the links among research, policy and practices. In his assessment of the evolution of agricultural policies and strategies in Ethiopia, the findings showed limited emphasis and attention given to livestock sector though progress is observed.
According to the research findings, there are thousands of dairy, poultry and livestock research papers published in internationally accredited journals which shows that evidence-based database is huge, but policies and practices do not usually get linked in Ethiopia. And, even if they did, policy implementation dwindles at the grassroots level because of multiple factors including limited resources and infrastructure, limited knowledge among the farmers, limited private sector investment in the sector, and weak value chains and marketing for animal produts, especially dairy and poultry production. Moreover, weak linkage among stakeholders in the sector has limited the huge potential of Ethiopian livestock development over the years.
Dr. Asrat Tera, Director General of Livestock Development Institute, stated that government policies and implementations should align with local population, land use and livelihood structures, and ecosystems instead of formulating one fits all strategies. He also underlined the necessity of research communication using all media outlets to inform the policy makers and the general public at large.
Another speaker was Dr.Aschalew Lakew, Director of Livestock Research in Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute. He noted that research and development linkage is very weak and studies seem duplicated and fragmented in general. Thus, he emphasized that knowledgeable people from the fields need to be involved in the national policy and strategy development processes to influence the government positively.
The workshop brought together academic staff, leaders and researchers from relevant institutions, policy makers and stakeholders from both the federal government and Sidama Regional State. It was concluded on a consensus that this research output must be widely disseminated through a joint workshop at the federal government level and with wider mainstream media coverage for greater impact.
