Decision support for spatially targeted livestock policies: Diverse examples from Uganda and Thailand

Public policies are needed to guide livestock sector’s changes along a path that is sustainable in economic, social and environmental terms. These policies should include multiple development objectives and be adapted to location-specific contexts. Policy makers need assistance in dealing with such complex decisions. Spatial information can be integrated in decision support tools to support policy making, and is becoming increasingly available in the developing world. Spatial information, however, has seldom been used in livestock sector policy formulation because policy makers generally do not have access to resources for spatial modelling. The objective of this paper is to bridge this gap by proposing an approach to consolidating and analysing spatial information in the context of limited modelling resources. Rooted in practical experience, a method is proposed that combines two multiple criteria decision-making techniques (weighted linear combination and analytical hierarchical processes), parameterised in a participatory process and implemented in a GIS. The method is tested in two different contexts: support to single objective decision-making for targeting trypanosomiasis control interventions in Uganda, and support to multiple objective decision-making for spatial planning of livestock production development in Thailand. The results show the advantages of such an approach, in terms of stakeholder involvement and practical application to support decision-making, but also highlight two shortcomings: dependence on high quality data and uncertainty with regard to the decision rule. While the former will be addressed as digital information becomes increasingly available, the latter, embedded in any decision-making process, calls for thorough sensitivity analyses and careful scrutiny of results.