Veterinary councils in Africa meet in Bamako under the auspices of the OIE

Under the auspices of the OIE, Chairpersons or Registrars of veterinary councils and veterinary boards, or veterinary statutory bodies (VSB) as they are defined by the OIE in the Terrestrial Code, met in the capital of Mali, Bamako, to be informed of the OIE’s international standards pertaining to these independent professional bodies and of the OIE’s work plan under the new 5th Strategic Plan.

Dr. Rebone Moerane, Chairperson of the South African Veterinary Council (SAVC). Picture (c) P. Bastiaensen (oie) 2011

The seminar was attended by representatives of 27 VSBs from Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo and Tunisia and, where these do not exist, representatives of the veterinary authority of Burundi, Congo, Gabon, Somalia and Rwanda.

General presentations on the OIE’s global outreach, the situation of the VSBs in Africa and case studies presented by representatives of veterinary councils from South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, Mali and Cameroon were completed by interventions from the African and the World Veterinary Associations and representatives from the veterinary councils of Canada and France. Funded under the Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF) programme of the European Commission’s Directorate-general for health and consumers (DG-SANCO) the opening ceremony of the meeting was attended by the Hon. Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, Dr. Bakary Treta and the OIE Director-General, Dr. Bernard Vallat. After two days of intense discussions, the participants resolved to tighten the collaboration between VSBs, as initiated in September 2009 in Arusha for the southern African countries, while the OIE was requested to encourage the creation, as appropriate, of regional associations of VSB and/or other organisations with delegated educational accrediting authority in order to establish a list of veterinary education establishments (VEE) that are subject to regional accreditation, as well as to present recommendations to the World Assembly of Delegates on Day-1 minimum competencies required by veterinarians for countries to meet the OIE standards on competent Veterinary Services

All pictures (c) P. Bastiaensen (oie) 2011