This article compares the different approaches taken to livestock development in the implementation of the first campaign to eradicate rinderpest from Africa - Joint Project 15, 1962-1967 - and in the ongoing Pan-African Rinderpest Campaign (PARC). It concludes that the latter attempt to eradicate the rinderpest virus from Africa has been secured by a group of reforms in livestock development policies instituted by the different countries involved. These reforms include the redefinition of the functions of government veterinary services, a reduction in total government budget for salaries and wages, elimination of the right to automatic employment for new graduates in veterinary services, more selective recruitment, the creation of livestock development funds, cost recovery, recognition of importation and distribution of veterinary drugs and biologics, and the privatization of veterinary services.
Six years after their introduction, the results of these new strategies, shared and implemented by most of the donors involved, are extremely encouraging. The approach could be extended to other development problems and other continents.
