This paper reports the results of a comparative study of the livestock sector in 3 South East Asian countries – Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam – at different stages of development and under different political systems that have witnessed rapid livestock sector growth in the last two decades. In all countries this growth has highlighted weaknesses in national capacity to maintain adequate and fair provision of veterinary and other related services and to respond effectively to public health threats. The paper explores aspects of innovation capacity through an investigation of the changing spectrum of services, actor roles and patterns of interaction required to effectively respond to new opportunities and threats facing the livestock sector. Specifically, the paper seeks to develop a better conceptualisation of response capacity and to draw generic lesson on the limitations of current provisions and identify policy and other intervention strategies needed to strengthen this capacity.
A two-page executive summary is available in addition to this paper.