Program Quality

Combating Avian Flu

For more than two years, CRS/Egypt has collaborated with the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) and the Business Enterprises Support Tools (BEST) Foundation on an avian flu mitigation project. The purpose of the project was to support the livelihoods and economic security of vulnerable poor women and their households, who traditionally raise poultry. In February 2006, the country confirmed its first H5N1 Avian Influenza (AI) outbreak in poultry rearing areas, and poultry sales plummeted. Stores emptied their shelves of chicken products, and the government ordered the slaughter of all poultry kept in homes and culling at many poultry farms. According to a January 2007 FAO study, initial control measures implemented to respond to the outbreak resulted in the slaughter of over 30 million birds.

Consumer confidence fell, and so did poultry consumption, resulting in a significant drop in income for the many households dependent on this sector.

Poor rural women were among the most vulnerable to AI, both in terms of health risks and livelihoods impact. Prior to the AI outbreaks, 29 percent of the population was engaged in backyard poultry farming, contributing to as much as 50 percent of the income of poor families, especially for women-headed households. Women who raise poultry on a small scale often do not know or follow good and safe farming practicies and lack sufficient knowledge to mitigate the risks of AI.

In September 2006, the UNDP, CRS, and BEST collaborated on a project intended to reduce the vulnerability of women microentrepreneurs to the AI epidemic. CRS and BEST provided business development services (BDS) to improve poultry farming practices and develop enterprise linkages. BEST provided enterprise training, facilitated access to better markets, and extended BDS to promote horizontal and vertical linkages between key market actors. These measures were aimed at improving prevailing poultry practices to promote greater enterprise viability and strengthen the capacity of small producers to withstand the effects of an AI outbreak.

The program extended loans to help micro-entrepreneurs secure more reliable production inputs and appropriate technology. It further helped the women develop alternative income-generating activities.

The project responded to client needs with the following services:

• Increasing amounts for repeat loans to clients for poultry and alternative livelihoods to keep up with their enterprise requirements and inflation
• Hosting awareness sessions on avian flu prevention and mitigation. In all, 8,599 women attended these awareness sessions, considerably exceeding the target of 6,000 participants
• Facilitating vaccination campaigns covering more than 50,000 birds in 24 villages in Minia and Fayoum
• Organizing training sessions, facilitated by external specialists, for 159 veterinarians to boost their technical skills in caring for poultry
• Sponsoring visits for 199 women to commercial-scale, hygienic poultry rearing practices. This helped to promote commercial transactions between these women and a highly reliable source of inputs
• Sponsoring visits by 151 women to a model enterprise showcasing the use of healthier and bio-safe chicken coops
• Providing training to 1,117 women in enterprise development, business management, and conducting feasibility and market studies

CRS/Egypt is looking to expand this initiative to other governorates.

For more information on this project contact Paul Lobo (plobo@eme.crs.org).

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