Lessons from action research to promote
uptake of harmonised institutional
approaches and appropriate technology
to transform informal milk markets in the
Eastern & Central Africa Region
By
Tezira Lore, Lusato Kurwijila and Amos Omore
Presented at the 4th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture
21 September 2005
Arusha, Tanzania

Key issues regarding informal milk
trade in the region
 Informal markets handle over 85 per cent of all milk sold
yet are discouraged by policy due to perceived safety
concerns.
 Poor consumers are unwilling to pay for high costs of
formally processed, packaged milk.
 If encouraged, the income and employment generation
potential in informal markets can form a solid bedrock for
regional growth in dairy industry.
 Informal milk markets cannot be ignored; effective
policies are needed to bridge the gap between formal
and informal markets.

Approach to transforming the
informal milk markets
 Institutional strengthening
 Define mechanisms for dairy regulatory authorities to
engage private sector business service providers in
training and certification of informal traders
 Develop generic training materials and curricula
 Facilitate agreement on cross-border recognition of
licences issued to trained traders
 Appropriate technology
 Enforce use of hygienic milk handling equipment
appropriate to needs of small milk traders

Evidence that training leads to
improved milk hygiene
48
71
42
55
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
% unacceptable
milk samples
Not trained Trained
Metal containers
Plastic containers
 Percent unacceptable milk samples (coliform counts over 50,000 cfu/ml) sold by
trained and untrained informal milk traders.
 Greatest improvement among traders handling milk in plastic containers.
Source: MoLFD/KARI/ILRI Smallholder Dairy Project, 2004

Action research
 Enables learning
from experience
 Interlinks
research, action
and evaluation
 Operating
framework:
ECAPAPA policy
change cycle
Data
analysis
Dialogue
Action
Data
collection
Eastern and Central Africa Program for
Agricultural Policy Analysis (ECAPAPA)
policy change cycle

Methodology
 Data collection and analysis:
 Review policies affecting the dairy sector
 Identify factors that limit domestic and cross-border dairy
trade
 Dialogue and action:
 Define minimum competencies that traders need in order
to handle milk hygienically
 Draw up curriculum for training in milk hygiene
 Develop and pre-test national dairy training guidelines
 Harmonize into generic guideline and curriculum which
can be adapted by other countries in the region

Transforming informal milk markets:
the Business Development Services
(BDS) approach

What the strategy will do
 Train informal dairy traders on milk
hygiene and quality control.
 Introduce and enforce use of hygienic milk
containers by informal traders.
 Issue regionally recognized licences to
those who have been trained.
 Incorporate Business Development
Services to facilitate provision of training
and milk testing equipment.

What is needed to implement the
strategy?
 Hygienic milk containers
appropriate to the needs of
informal traders.
 Generic training guidelines
that can be adapted by
countries in the region.
 Cross-border recognition of
licenses issued by
regulatory authority to
trained milk traders who use
hygienic milk containers.

Already… mindsets are changing!
 Top-level regulatory stakeholders now
more willing to streamline informal milk
markets.
 Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) has incorporated
project outputs in its Strategic Plan to
2009.
 KDB partnering with local NGO to
implement BDS quality assurance scheme.
 But attitude change needs to trickle down.

Lessons from Uganda’s Dairy
Development Authority
From this… …to this!
Open-pan boiling
Plastic jerry cans
Poor hygiene
No quality controls
Jacketed pasteurizers
Metal milk churns
“Clean” milk processing
Testing of milk quality
Photos courtesy of Uganda’s Dairy Development Authority (DDA)

Conclusions
 Training and licensing of informal traders can:
 improve quality of raw milk
 allow bridging the gap with formal traders
 help transform informal markets towards ‘formality’.
 BDS strategy makes the approach feasible.
 Some regulatory authorities need strengthening
before they can adopt the strategy.
 Evidence-based knowledge can influence
positive changes in mindset thus need to
continue linking research with development
projects.

Thank you!
Unless otherwise stated, all photos used in this presentation are from ILRI
This regional study is based on initial work carried out in Kenya by the DFID-
funded Smallholder Dairy Project, jointly implemented by the Ministry of
Livestock and Fisheries Development, the Kenya Agricultural Research
Institute (KARI) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).