OIE selects Addis Ababa to initiate a series of regional training workshops on public-private partnerships in the veterinary domain

The Public Private Progress initiative, conducted by the OIE with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and in collaboration with the French agricultural research institute CIRAD, which commenced in 2016, aims to encourage the development of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the veterinary domain, in particular to strengthen the capacities of national Veterinary Services. This initiative, following extensive consultation, led to the publication of OIE guidelines, the OIE PPP Handbook, which was released at the 87th OIE General Session in May 2019.

Subsequently, the OIE has now taken steps to disseminate best practices to support OIE Member Countries in developing successful and sustainable PPPs to strengthen Veterinary Services locally.

The first such workshop – for a selection of English-speaking African countries – took place at the ILRI Campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 21 and 22 August 2019, attended by a total of 60 participants, experts and facilitators.

Invited Member Countries were Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and the host country, Ethiopia. Each member country was represented by two officials from the public veterinary services, two representatives of the private sector and one representative of the national veterinary statutory body (veterinary board or council) or veterinary association.

Each participant was invited to complete an online introductory course on the typology of PPPs and their key success factors, developed with the technical assistance of EuFMD (FAO).

The workshop was designed in order to illustrate how PPPs can benefit both public and private stakeholders in the conduct of their respective missions in the veterinary domain, providing the basis for efficient advocacy. It presented best practices on how to develop a PPP, using specific regional examples of PPPs and the guidelines presented in the OIE PPP Handbook. Most importantly, it provided ample opportunity for discussing and experimenting the necessary steps required to achieve the desired outcome.

The workshop was facilitated by OIE staff and representatives of existing PPP initiatives in Africa, such as the Meat Board of Namibia and the ALPHA initiative (Zoetis), along with experts from CIRAD, FAO and GALVmed. This first workshop will be followed by a similar workshop for a selection of French-speaking African Member Countries (Tunis, 11 – 12 September) as well as two sub-regional workshops in Asia (Kathmandu, 17 – 18 October and Bangkok, 26 – 27 November).