AU-IBAR and ICPALD Planning Meeting for STSD and SMP-A Progress Review and 2016 Planned Activities
Two running regional projects, namely the Improving Animal Disease Surveillance in Support of Trade in IGAD MS Project or Surveillance of Trade-Sensitive Diseases (STSD) and Standards Methods and Procedures in Animal Health (SMP-AH), recently organized and held a back-to-back planning meeting to develop work plans for the year 2016 project activities from 8th to 11th February, 2016 at Giraffe Ocean View Hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The meetings were attended by the STSD and SMP Project National Focal Points (NFPs) and surveillance coordinators in the national veterinary diagnostic laboratories of the IGAD Member States (MS) that include Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, in addition to Tanzania. The meeting was also attended by the relevant staff members of AU-IBAR and IGAD/ICPALD.
While STSD project is financed by the European Union (EU) with a total budget of 6million Euros and is implemented in eight countries of the IGAD region with the support of AU-IBAR and IGAD Secretariat. SMP-AH is financed by USAIDand also implemented in the IGAD region and Tanzania.
Objective of the planning meeting
The overall objective of the planning meeting was to develop a harmonized and consolidated work plans for 2016 activities that will be implemented at national and regional levels, while the specific objectives were:
- To update on the progress of the project activities in 2015;
- To develop a detailed work plan for activities implemented at national and regional levels;
- To work out budget required for implementation of national activities;
- To prepare a harmonized implementation calendar of national and regional activities;
- To present and discuss the STSD project M & E work plan in 2016;
- To discuss the challenges of STSD and SMP-AH implementation and chart out the way forward.
Summary of proceedings / Outcome
- Proceedings
Opening remarks were accordingly made by representatives of IGAD/ICPALD and AU-IBAR and the two meetings were officially opened by the representative of Director of Veterinary Services (DVS) of Tanzania. For more details, please refer to the attached communiqués.
1.1) Items Presented and Discussed
During the four-day planning meetings of STSD and SMP-AH, the following items were presented, deliberated and thoroughly discussed:
| STSD Project | SMP-AH Project |
| § Progress and challenges of STSD implementation in 2015;§ STSD Planning in 2016, together with M&E plan;
§ Group Work – development of national, regional and consolidated work plans.
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§ Review implementation of SMP-AH activities in 2015§ Planning activities for 2016
§ Review of SMP-AH Mapping tool 2016
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1.2) Meeting outcome
The following were the main outcomes of the planning meeting:
| STSD project | SMP-AH project |
| § A report on the progress of the STSD project and challenges experienced at continental, regional and national levels presented and discussed;§ Way forward charted out to address the challenges and fast-track effective implementation of the project;
§ A consolidated work plan for STSD activities at national and regional levels developed and agreed upon; § Indicative budget for implementation of regional and national activities prepared.
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Considering that:§ The project has made significant gains;
§ The need to consolidate achievements; § The need to create impacts in the following areas: o Information sharing in the region o Enhancing productivity of livestock o Improve disease surveillance, response and control § The need to improve the livelihoods of pastoralists. |
Recommendations and way forward
Considering the progress and challenges experienced in 2015 as well as the work plan developed for 2016, the participants made the following recommendations:
| STSD Project | SMP-AH Project |
| AU-IBAR and IGAD§ To expedite the delivery of project inputs to MS;;
§ To enhance communication and widely disseminate visibility materials in order to improve awareness about the project; § To coordinate and synchronize planning exercise and back-stop national activities and training programmes by deploying relevant technical staff; § To timely disburse projected and agreed budgets § Ensure smooth communication with the national focal points (NFPs) regarding any STSD related activity within the countries.
Member States § National focal points for STSD to liaise with national focal points for SMP-AH for possible complementarities and ensuring synergies; § To enhance communication and visibility of project activities, § To immediately embark on sample and data collection as per the survey design. |
Way forward§ Countries to undertake activities with impacts on the livelihoods of pastoralists and improve trade
§ Countries to mainstream laboratory standard operating procedures (SOPs) and SOPs for epidemiological investigations into routine activities. Accordingly, countries will be supported with regional experts to guide them § The project team to harmonize the country activity plans for 2016 § Countries to start implementing planned activities immediately § Countries to forward to the project office data for feeding into the SMP GIS mapping tool by Friday 19th February 2016
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