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ANIMAL HEALTH ASSISTANTS (AHAB) or ANIMAL HEALTH TECHNICIANS (AHTs), (agents techniques d'élevage in French; técnico agrícola, técnico de laboratorio in Spanish; inspetor de carnes (técnico), enfermeiro in Portuguese) are persons having undergone formal training in their respective tasks over a minimum of two years. The term also includes laboratory assistants, meat inspectors, assistant veterinarians and animal nurses (FAO, 1991).
AUXILIARY PERSONNEL (village relais in French; guarda sanitario or vacunador in Portuguese) are persons who have received short-course and/or in-service training and include stock inspectors, vaccinators, inseminators and primary animal health care workers.
NOTE: The term paraveterinarian is extremely broad and has been a source of contention since it includes AHAB, AHTs and auxiliaries; this consultation prefers to avoid the use of the term and recommends that when it is used, it be defined.
COMMERCIALIZE: the user pays full cost for specific private goods and services.
CONTESTABLE SERVICES are public duties or functions, currently on offer by the public sector, but which government authorities have decided could be executed, supervised or managed by a private-sector entity. The decision as to who delivers a given service can be contested or negotiated with government authorities.
COST RECOVERY: a user pays for, or contributes towards the full cost of specific services provided by the public veterinary service by virtue of their responsibility.
CVO: chief veterinary officer
DVS: director of veterinary services
DSV: directeur des services vétérinaires (French)
DSE: directeur des services d l'élevage (French)
DLS: director of livestock services
NOTE: In francophone countries the functions of the DVS/DSV may include livestock production responsibilities, hence the acronym DSE. Likewise, in anglophone countries the acronym DLS is commonly used. Other equivalent acronyms may apply in specific countries.
NOTE: The popular term decentralization is often used instead of deconcentration or devolution. Since the three terms have different meanings when used in francophone or anglophone countries, precise definitions of the words are provided below.
DECENTRALIZATION: any reorganization that moves decision-making away from the centre of authority. French and Spanish usage restricts decentralization to grants of authority to bodies that are legally autonomous from the central state; in English this type of decentralization is captured by subcategories of devolution (to autonomous geographical units of government), delegation to autonomous corporations (for parastatals) and privatization (for philanthropic and profit-making bodies). In English, deconcentration (a grant of authority to a lower geographical level of the central government) is also considered a form of decentralization, whereas this is not the case in French or Spanish. Because of the above linguistic confusion and because decentralization has multiple forms, this document uses the terms for its subtypes instead.
DECONCENTRATION: a transfer or allocation of authority to lower or local levels of administration or particular interests; the state retains the same responsibilities but entrusts them to local levels of national administration.
DEVOLUTION: to reorganize into more autonomous units where the state gives up certain activities that are assumed by local bodies.
DIVESTMENT: to take away tasks or activities (or property) currently vested with the public sector, either officially or unofficially, giving responsibility for implementation or management to the private sector. Divestment is synonymous with privatization.
DOWNSIZING: reducing the capacity, size or responsibility of an entity to adopt to new needs; also euphemistically called rightsizing.
EXTERNALITIES (spillover effects) are costs (disadvantages) or benefits that the activity (or lack thereof) of one agent imposes upon another, in the absence of any financial compensation. That is, the use or non-use of a good or service affects the condition of neighbours. Externalities may be negative or positive. For example, the non-vaccination of a herd against foot-and-mouth disease facilitates transmission to other herds.
LIBERALIZATION: to reduce public sector control over the economy, specifically by means that increase the freedom of the market, e.g. reduction or lifting of restriction on domestic or external trade; or allowing producers, suppliers, distributors and vendors more access to veterinary inputs and their market.
MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATIONS (MOs): a body of persons organized to provide services to their members and governed and financed by the members, e.g. a producer cooperative, milk marketing society, herders' association and grassroots community organizations, etc.
MONOPOLIES: a state of denial of choice, e.g. a monopoly exists when users have no possibility of going to another supplier.
MORAL HAZARD: a condition in which the information between two partners linked in a trading relationship is asymmetrical, i.e. one partner may deceive the other. For example, it is difficult for the average consumer to differentiate between the quality, safety or efficacy of a veterinary remedy. When quality controls are weak, public action is justified to protect buyers by enforcing quality standards. The state has responsibility in cases of moral hazard.
PRIVATE GOOD or SERVICE: where the benefit resulting from the use of a service or good accrues exclusively to the purchaser (non-joint use) and consumption of the good or service by one person reduces its availability to others (non-open access).
PRIVATIZATION is the transfer to the private sector of activities, functions, responsibilities or property that have rested with the public sector. The objectives of privatization may include i) the relief of the financial and administrative burdens of government; ii) improvement in efficiency and productivity; iii) facilitating economic growth; iv) reduction in the size and presence of the public sector in the economy; and v) helping to meet national economic productivity targets (Babjee, 1996).
PUBLIC GOOD or SERVICE: use of a good or service does not exclusively benefit one person (open access); consumption of a good or service does not reduce its availability for others (joint use). The public character of goods or services does not imply that the body providing these goods or services should be public. The difference between public and private goods is not absolute, but there are graduations. For example, MOs, NGOs and private veterinary practitioners may be contracted for public campaigns.
RESTRUCTURING: changing the organizational structures and/or the job descriptions of staff.
RULES AND REGULATIONS are legally enforceable standards, one economic purpose of which is to internalize externalities (negative or positive). An example is the enforced requirement for area-wide foot-and-mouth disease vaccination to achieve biological control (and efficiency) against the disease.
SERVICE: commonly refers to a job or task performed (clinical examination and treatment, embryo transfer service) or to a branch of public employment (national veterinary service); thus, the term may include goods and infrastructure.
STAKEHOLDERS: groups having an interest in, bringing outside pressure on, and having a potential for gain or loss from, an enterprise or agency. It also includes groups that have shared values.
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: a set of measures applied in response to dysfunctional macro-economic conditions within the domestic economy and aimed at reducing deficit spending by governments, reducing inflation rates, increasing the competitiveness (by currency devaluation) of domestic industries, and other measures.
SUBSIDY: a transfer payment of direct financial assistance, especially made by governments, to facilitate access to selected services; it is intended to be temporary and generally causes distortion in the economy.
TRADITIONAL HEALER: a person who has not received formal training (in the Western medical sense) but carries out acts of treating animals (and/or humans) based on his or her accumulated experience, expertise and tradition.