Local cattle in Botswana. Picture (c) P. Bastiaensen (woah) 2023.
For a few years now, WOAH has been working to continue to improve the content and readability of the Specialist Commission’s reports to improve the transparency of the process for the elaboration of WOAH international Standards.
Engagement of WOAH Members is a critical part of this process, not only to ensure that the Specialist Commissions’ work to develop new or revise existing Standards are science-based but also to ensure that the Standards under development take into consideration the different contexts among Members, and to enable implementation of Standards by all WOAH Members.
International Organisations with an agreement can engage in the standard-setting process by proposing new work, commenting on a Specialist Commission’s work programme, or by submitting comments on proposed new or revised Standards.
In line with the strategic objectives of the 7th Strategic Plan, WOAH is currently implementing a step-wise approach to further progress on the transparency of the process for the elaboration of WOAH Standards. This approach will start with the publication of comments considered by a Commission, and progress to the inclusion of detailed Commission responses to comments considered, and finally, the evolution of the Specialist Commissions reports in this regard. This decision was discussed with the Specialist Commissions concerned during their recent September 2023 meetings, who strongly supported this approach.
WOAH believes that through improved visibility of the comments under consideration, Members, International Organisations and relevant stakeholders will gain a better understanding of the range of opinions submitted, and this step will also make it possible for the Commissions to present their responses to comments in a clearer manner. Together this should result also in a better understanding of Member concerns, help build consensus on the proposals, and will also progressively improve the quality of the comments received.
In March/April 2024, comments considered during the February 2024 meetings by the Aquatic Animals Commission, the Code Commission, and the Biological Standards Commission will be published for the first time. The comments will be published on the Delegate’s website only, at the same time as the respective February 2024 report and will include the name of the Member or International Organisation (IO) that submitted the comment.
In addition, a detailed Guidance document and a Standard Operating Procedure that explain how to submit comments have been developed and are available on the Delegates website and the WOAH public website.
In order to support the implementation of this programme, WOAH aims to take advantage of the annual meeting of Delegates from the Africa region (called the annual CVO “common position” meeting, in preparation for the General Session, under the auspices of the African Union) to host a one-day workshop to help Delegates gain a better understanding of the above.
The main facilitators of the workshop are Dr Etienne Bonbon (picture on the right), current President of the Terrestrial Animal Health Standards Commission (or Code Commission) and Dr Emmanuel Couacy-Hymann (picture below) current President of the Biological Standards Commission.
Dr Etienne Bonbon, President of the Code Commission. Picture (c) P. Bastiaensen (woah) 2023.
Dr Emmanuel Couacy-Hymann, President of the Biological Standards Commission. Picture (c) P. Bastiaensen (woah) 2023.
Note that this is an event exclusively targeting WOAH Delegates or Chief Veterinary Officers (invitation only).
Contact : Dr. Patrick Bastiaensen, Programme Officer, WOAH, Nairobi: [email protected]
