The regional animal feed action plan was formulated through a consultative and participatory process building on experiences and lessons learnt by wide spectrum of key stakeholders in public and private sectors, notably, policy makers, traders, pastoralist and farmers' organizations, civil society, NGOs, and the development partners. It builds on the earlier consultative experience sharing workshop on feed by USAID, ILRI, IGAD and FAO in the region. The plan provides broad opportunities for partnerships with producers, governments, and private sector, development and humanitarian organizations at the national and regional levels. It provides a guided approach to collectively tackle the problems of animal feed and pave the way for sustainable production of quality animals and products while improving competitiveness, profitability and ensuring sustainable feed resource management for the entire Eastern African region. The aim of the action plan is to provide guidelines to communities, countries, private sector and livestock stakeholders to optimally utilize the available feed resources in East Africa to increase the supply as well as improve the quality of animals, products and by-products and to maximize the economic and social benefits of the livestock sector.

In 2019 and 2020 alone, sub-Saharan Africa was hit by a once-in-a-century desert locust upsurge and the COVID-19 pandemic while simultaneously facing conflict, droughts, and floods among other shocks and stressors. More than 60 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa depends on agriculture for food and income. Smallholder farmers, pastoralists, fishers, and foresters are the key change agents in restoring and improving livelihoods in Africa. By carrying out interventions that are both anticipatory and reactive, tackling the root causes of fragility, the challenges facing food security and nutrition can be addressed. In the effort to reach Zero Hunger by 2030, the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agri-food systems must be supported for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind. This publication highlights how FAO is working with partners and governments to strengthen the ability of communities in sub-Saharan Africa and food systems to withstand and rapidly recover from crises. The organization is contributing to safeguarding the livelihoods of the most vulnerable agro/pastoral households in sub-Saharan Africa through a range of activities, including capacity building, knowledge sharing, food security and nutrition analyses, and anticipatory actions. The achievements and interventions presented in this publication are not a comprehensive list of all of FAO’s resilience work in the region but rather provide an overview of what is being done to reach our common goal. This is made possible through strong partnerships at all levels. Resource partners’ valuable contributions in particular are critical to these successes. By strengthening collaboration with local, regional, and global partners, the persistent challenges related to food?crisis contexts are tackled to build back better livelihoods and agri-food systems, to ensure a positive future for the African people.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) developed these guidelines with the overall objective to protect and improve the productivity of the ruminant livestock species of South Sudan. Focussing on the best use of local feed resources, the guidelines mainly target livestock extension workers promoting livestock feed development good practices to pastoral and agropastoral communities as well as the emerging market-oriented smallholder livestock producers. This document also serves as an important tool for advancing the policy and strategic priority actions of the East Africa Animal Feed Action Plan (FAO and IGAD, 2019) and the draft National Livestock Development Policy of South Sudan.

Meat, Milk & More: Policy Innovations to Shepherd Inclusive and Sustainable Livestock Systems in Africa highlights options for sustainably promoting growth in the livestock sector, drawing from what four African countries—Ethiopia, Mali, South Africa, and Uganda—have done successfully in terms of institutional and policy innovation as well as programmatic interventions. By adapting these lessons to countries’ specific contexts and scaling them up across the continent, African governments can meet their national and international commitments to agricultural growth and transformation.