OHDI AND ANIMAL WELFARE – THE JOURNEY SO FAR
One Health and Development Initiative (OHDI) is a Nigerian-based nonprofit nongovernmental organization registered with the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on June 21, 2019. The organization works to address correlated issues of animal, human, and environmental health using the One Health approach. Our mission is embedded in the evidence that public health and development concerns are interwoven across the human, animal, and environmental ecosystems thereby requiring a holistic approach to effective and sustainable solutions.
Animal Welfare is one of our key focus areas and we work here to promote stakeholder knowledge, capacity building and research for implementation of good animal welfare practices and systems while also improving access to quality animal health services (especially in areas that are lacking). We are also engaging government stakeholders to potentially support the establishment and/or implementation of animal welfare policies. Therefore, Animal Welfare Courses (AWC) is a project output of OHDI established to facilitate the achievement of the organization’s goals in implementing and advancing animal welfare interventions across diverse animal species.
Since the inception of our work in farmed animal welfare, OHDI has had successes in implementing integrated research and intervention on core animal welfare issues. Therefore, we are recognized in the animal welfare space as a strong advocate demonstrating knowledge and capacity and building strong networks.
Some of our achievements are detailed below:
- In 2020/2021, we implemented the Project PAWN – Promoting Animal Welfare in Nigeria – in which we trained and engaged over 100 livestock and pet owners in remote agrarian communities in Nigeria on humane education and animal welfare practices. They were also provided access to OHDI’s online call platform for expert information, inquiries, feedback, and follow-up of the new animal health and welfare practices they have learned and were implementing.
- OHDI supported a pan-African Animal Welfare research project mandated by the African Union – Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) that developed a compelling case and evidence to promote animal welfare among Stakeholders in Africa. This research was borne out of the need to strengthen the efforts of the AU-IBAR to promote Animal Welfare knowledge, convince continental and country-level stakeholders in Africa on the importance and impact of animal welfare on our public health and socioeconomic development, and disseminate the Animal Welfare Strategy for Africa (AWSA) to the 54 AU-member states of Africa. This report was presented at the 6th Africa Animal Welfare Conference (2022) and it shared insights on the status of animal welfare in Africa and the impact of animal welfare on public health and socio-economic development of countries in Africa.
- With support from Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE), OHDI implemented Aquaculture fish welfare research in Nigeria that evaluated stakeholder knowledge, perception, and practices of aquaculture welfare in Nigeria to support, design and foster the implementation of effective interventions. The research engaged over 1300 stakeholders consisting of fish farmers, consumers, researchers, relevant policymakers and administrators, and fish farm associations.
- At the mandate of the Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW), OHDI supported the implementation of a baseline research study that evaluated stakeholder knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of hen welfare, among farmers, producers, consumers, researchers, as well as the prevalence of cage-free systems for farmed hens in Nigeria. This informed our next level of interventions with regards to the implementation of appropriate intervention strategies and campaigns. The research engaged over 1300 stakeholders consisting of poultry farmers, consumers, researchers, relevant policymakers and administrators, and poultry farm associations.
- With support from the Effective Altruism Funds, OHDI has been implementing the Aquaculture Fish Welfare Intervention project which is promoting awareness, knowledge and capacity building of Nigerian fish farmers on implementing fish welfare practices. To facilitate this, we have developed and validated a Fish Welfare Training Guide, conducted on-site train-the-trainer workshops for 90 fish farmers and government staff (administrators) in the Departments of Fisheries at state level. These trainees were drawn from 7 states in Nigeria, and they currently serve as the pilot set of trainers to disseminate awareness and training of fish welfare to other fish farmer clusters within their respective cities and communities.
- In 2018, we implemented “Project Fish and Oceans” supported by the Internews Earth Journalism Network (EJN). This project was done to investigate and report on ocean resource conservation, Nigeria’s over reliance on fish importation, and the resultant health and socioeconomic impacts.
- In 2017, OHDI implemented Project Abattoir Nigeria which investigated, reported, and engaged stakeholders on the dire issues of dilapidated and unhealthy abattoirs including the consumption of infected meat. The results were utilized to engage policymakers and abattoir workers on food safety and animal welfare practices and advocate for abattoir reforms.