Public policy making often involves a multitude of actors. The level and nature of
interaction among these actors, be it cohesion or friction, determines policy outcomes.
For outsiders with the aim of influencing policy based on empirical evidence, it is
imperative to know who are involved in the policy making process, the interest and
influence of each actor as well as the nature and extent of their interaction. A study was
conducted to analyze the Ethiopian livestock policy sector in terms of the main actors
and their interaction in the dairy and animal health policy subsector. The study applied
participatory stakeholders and social network analysis to identify the most important
actors, their salience and network characteristics. The results indicate that a multitude of
actors with diverse interests is involved in the Ethiopian dairy sector in a loosely
connected network with medium level of clustering aligned along administrative tiers.
The results also showed that in the existing federal administrative structure, there are no
policy networks in the Ethiopian diary policy landscape that cut across regional
boundaries. However, the international and federal level government actors play
important role as central actors with bridging role connecting the decentralized regional
and local level actors as well as in initiating policy engagement and change. This implies
that there is a room for pluralistic policymaking and any attempt to influence policy in
the livestock sector need to work with these international, federal and regional level
actors