Financing the delivery of animal health services in developing countries: A case study of Ghana

Inadequate financing for the delivery of animal health services in many dev eloping countries has been blamed for lack of efficiency and effectiveness of veterinary services. There are no reports of how the delivery of veterin ary services in Ghana is financed. The aim of this paper is to provide info rmation on the funding of veterinary services in Ghana to help in decision making on resource allocation. Various indicators and measures were used in assessing the adequacy of fina ncing and resource allocation from 1990 to 1995. These measures were the ve terinary budget as proportions of the national budget, GDP and AGDP; the pr oportions of the veterinary budget allocated to salaries; the ratios of sal aries to non-staff expenditure and of non-staff expenditure to veterinary l ivestock units and technical staff; coefficient of efficacy; and R-ratio. T hese generally declined or worsened over the period, deviating from recomme nded norms where such norms exist. This confirmed the paucity of financing and resource allocation for the delivery of veterinary services. Revenue ge neration from cost recovery over the 1993-95 period was a potential source of funding, exceeding 100% of non-staff expenditure for 1993 and 1994. Howe ver, the revenue generated was not channelled back to veterinary services b ut went to the national coffers. This served as a disincentive. There is an urgent need to review how veterinary services are financed in G hana, if the delivery of services is to improve in efficiency and effective ness.