Dr Caesar H. Lubaba officially joined the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) on 19 August 2024, as Programme Officer for Trade in animal commodities and regional implementation of SPS measures and is based at the WOAH Sub-Regional Representation for Southern Africa, in Gaborone, Botswana.
Caesar’s role is to support the implementation of appropriate trade facilitation and risk mitigation measures in animal health, aligned with the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement and the SPS Annex 7 of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) Protocol on Trade in Goods. This European Union (EU) supported project will be implemented in all WOAH Members which are also Members of the African Union, but will focus the more tangible activities with the 21 Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Member States.
Caesar will form part of a continental and international network of WOAH staff, working with colleagues in other Regional and Sub-Regional Representations as well as WOAH Headquarters. The project will also be implemented with close collaboration with the African Union (AU) Commission and the COMESA Secretariat.
A Zambian citizen, Caesar is a veterinary epidemiologist with a PhD in Veterinary Epidemiology from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. He has a Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine from the South China Agricultural University and a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) degree from the University of Zambia.
Before joining WOAH, Caesar was the head of the National Livestock Epidemiology and Information Centre (NALEIC) in Zambia’s Department of Veterinary Services in the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. He looks forward to contributing to the overall implementation of the project specifically in the areas of trade facilitation for animal and animal commodities as well as promoting adherence to SPS measures by member states in the COMESA region. Caesar can be contacted at [email protected]