Progress of STSD project evaluated by Steering committee held in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia
ICPALD/IGAD and AUIBAR jointly organized steering committees’ meeting on Improving Animal Disease Surveillance in Support of Livestock Trade (STSD project ) on June 26, 2015 in Addis Ababa to review the project progress including technical and financial reports, work plans and budgets and provide guidance to strengthen coordination and information sharing with complementary interventions in the region.
The meetings was opened by Dr. Hassan Chaka on behalf of the Livestock state Minister, MOA, Ethiopia and the welcoming speeches were made by Dr. Ameha Sebsibe on behalf of Ag. Director, ICPALD and Prof. Ahmed , Director AUIBAR. The members of the steering committee were Directors of Veterinary services in IGAD member states, representatives of export quarantines, private sector including the regional traders association (NEALCO), technical partners such as FAO, OIE and ILRI, USAID, AUIBAR and IGAD/ICPALD.
The steering committee (PSC) evaluated and approved the progress report and work plan of the project for the next six months and provided some recommendations for follow up. The main recommendations by the 3nd STSD steering committee meeting were: capacity building activities of the project to take into account training of national staff on data analysis and outbreak investigation; the project to include regional export quarantine personnel in future laboratory and other relevant training programs; the guidelines developed by the project to be periodically reviewed by taking into account emerging issues and new developments; member states ( MS) are encouraged to use the data and information generated through the cross-sectional surveys in order to apply to OIE for official endorsement of control programs against PPR, FMD and CBPP; AU-IBAR and ICPALD to enhance collaboration and coordination with ongoing regional and national projects addressing LITS and disease control; considering that core activities of the project have not been covered as per the project plan due to the delay in the procurement and delivery of inputs, the PSC recommends for no-cost extension of the project implementation period by 12 months .
ICPALD/IGAD and AU-IBAR are grateful to EU for financing this event through the STSD project
