Commercialized Supply of Training and Certification in Milk Quality Assurance in Eastern Africa

This manual captures the basic experiences of dairy boards, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and smallÔÇÉscale milk market chain actors in East Africa in implementing a scheme on commercialised supply of training and certification (T&C) through business development services (BDS). This approach arose out of the need to fill the gap in delivery of services in milk quality assurance, in the face of continued dominance of informal raw milk markets that account for over 80% of marketed milk in the region, as a mechanism for addressing milk quality and safety concerns, improving market access and gradually bridging the gap between regulated and unregulated markets. Initially piloted in Kenya, where a major policy shift to allow raw milk sales by smallÔÇÉscale traders took place in 2004 with significant impacts on value chain actors preceded the engagements (Kaitibie et al., 2010), the approach has gained wider acceptance and is being outÔÇÉscaled in Kenya and piloted in Tanzania and Uganda