PC-TAD
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Dr Simon Kihu officially joined the OIE Sub-Regional Representation for Eastern Africa on 4 January 2021 as OIE Programme Officer Veterinary Workforce Development and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR).
As such Dr Kihu will take over the PPR portfolio from Dr Thomas Dulu who will henceforth work on the foot-and-mouth disease (Global FMD-PCP) and African swine fever (Global ASF Initiative) portfolios for the Eastern Africa region.
Dr Simon Kihu is a 57-year old Kenyan veterinarian (1989), holder of a PhD in applied veterinary virology, with special reference to PPR, from the University of Nairobi. With a qualification in agricultural policy analysis, he has vast experience in animal health policy formulation and is deeply familiar with issues of animal health service delivery, including community-based animal health service delivery, the management and training of veterinary paraprofessionals, including curriculum development, as well as developing animal health training policies.
He has 30 years of track record implementing rural animal health disease control programmes, of which fifteen years were spent in senior management of national and international consortia programmes and research activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Previous employers include the FAO, Washington State University, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF) Belgium, VetWorks Eastern Africa, and lastly VetWorks UK.
Simon joins the OIE to support the implementation of the Project for the Prevention and Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases for the benefit of smallholder farmers (PC-TAD) funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project has a five-year timespan (2020-2024) and a budget of EUR 5.000.000. Simon will be focusing on the component that intends to (first) strengthen the recognition and training of veterinary paraprofessionals across Eastern Africa, in line with OIE guidelines and recommendations, to (secondly) achieve eradication of PPR by 2030, a goal set by the international community.
Dr Kihu can be contacted at : [email protected]
