12-13^th March 2020 (Entebbe, Uganda); IGAD Center for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD) in collaboration with USAID; AU-IBAR and RPLRP supported IGAD member states to develop and validate national SPS strategies aligned to IGAD regional SPS strategy. Most countries also supported to establish and operationalize national SPS committees to enhance inter-sectoral collaboration and share lessons regularly for improved compliance with SPS standards.

A two-day regional meeting was convened in Entebbe, Uganda to assess the progress of implementation of the national strategies; action plan and national SPS committees in all IGAD member states with an aim of strengthening their operations and share lessons and good experiences among countries. Dr. Anna Rose Ademun, the Chief Veterinary Officer, Uganda, officially opened the meeting while Dr. Solomon Munyua, the Director of IGAD Center for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD) made welcome remarks. Both reminded participants that countries should be aware of African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA) that will come into force in July 2020 and therefore improve on their SPS compliance status in order to benefit from African common market of more than 1.3 billion population. Twenty six (26) participants drawn from the ministries responsible for animal resources and national standard agencies from IGAD member states, ARSO, AU-IBAR, the private sector involved in the area and IGAD/ICPALD, attended the meeting. The following recommendations were made:

 

1. Countries and all relevant implementers (IGAD, AU-IBAR, ARSO) should continue with awareness creation/ advocacy and publicity of SPS strategies, standards and AfCFTA agreement to mainstream stakeholders utilizing any available opportunities and resources,
2. The regulatory authorities and the private sector should work closely to strengthen self or regulated compliance with SPS measures and all established standards to ensure seamless trade from the region,
3. Member States, IGAD, AU-IBAR and ARSO should continue with resource mobilization and coordination to facilitate regional harmonization of some grades and standards of livestock commodities such live animals, meat, milk and hides and skins among others
4. Countries should establish/ strengthen inter-sectoral coordination through national SPS committees and use any available resources to undertake regular meetings and  implement their national activities,

 

Acknowledgement: ICPALD expresses appreciation to USAID for financing this activity

 

February 17-18^th 2020, Juba (South Sudan) IGAD Center for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD) with financial support from FAO funded by the EU organized a bilateral two days meeting between South Sudan and Sudan to launch the governance structure and sign the bilateral Memorandum of Understanding on crossborder cooperation and coordination on animal health and sanitary measures in Juba, South Sudan on 17-18^th February 2020. The technical meeting held on 17^th February 2020 launched the MoU governance structure and developed a harmonized calendar between the two countries for conducting surveillance and vaccination of crossborder animals against the identified priority transboundary animal diseases (TADs). A one-day meeting of Ministers responsible for animal resources in the two countries on 18th February 2020 who signed the MoU followed this. This achievement will strengthen the two countries’ cooperation and collaboration along their common borders to address animal health issues including disease surveillance, disease prevention & control, sharing of natural resources, diagnostic infrastructures and timely sharing of animal health and trade information. The technical and Ministerial meetings held back to back were attended by 25 and 29 participants respectively from the two countries. Participants included Ministers, Sudan Embassy officer, Veterinary technical staff from national and state governments, FAO, EU delegation and IGAD /ICPALD.

Hon. James Janka Duku, Minister of Livestock and Fisheries Development of the Republic of South Sudan officially opened the meeting. He reiterated that signing the MoU on crossborder coordination and cooperation on animal health and sanitary measures will benefit the efforts towards harmonized management of transboundary animal diseases to enhance crossborder livestock trade. S. Sudan and Sudan should therefore put up mechanisms to regularize livestock trade between them to curb informal trade that denies the two countries revenue in form of uncollected tax. The Minister also emphasized the importance of commercialization of livestock production and export from S. Sudan to international markets like in the Middle East and North Africa countries.  Welcome remarks were made by Hon. Dr. Solomon Munyua ICPALD Director, DR. ALAMELDIN ABDULLAH, Minister of Animal Resources, Republic of Sudan; Mr. Malo Meshack, FAO representative South Sudan and Dr. Sinead WALSH; Ambassador – Head of EU Delegation

The two meetings achieved the following:

• The technical meeting launched the MoU governance structure and developed harmonized disease surveillance and vaccination calendar against priority cross border TADs,
• The two Ministers signed the MoU.

The ministerial meeting committed to:

• Advocate and maintain political will at the highest level of their two countries in support of the Memorandum of Understanding and the Implementation Framework aimed at operationalizing the MOU
• Mobilize required resources from within their respective countries, in collaboration with IGAD and FAO from the Donor community to fund various activities in the MoU areas of cooperation and the implementation framework (IF) 

Recommendations and way forward from technical meeting:
Map out ongoing cross border initiatives and facilitate coordination among government and development partners’ funded projects

Facilitate awareness on cross border MoU during the community migration dialogue, at policy and development partner levels
Launch synchronized/ harmonized crossborder vaccination against priority TADs- at Abyei and Renk/ Maban border areas
IGAD to convene donor meeting to present the MoU and progress made and solicit resource mobilization

Develop a protocol for sharing of crossborder sanitary information and trade
Map out available crossborder natural resource and infrastructure facilities (labs, markets, quarantines) that support crossborder animal health and sanitary measures

IGAD /ICPALD expresses appreciation to EU and FAO for funding this activity 

 

Feb. 9-10. 2020, (Mogadishu, Somalia): IGAD Center for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD) organized a national stakeholder’s workshop to review, enrich and validate the draft Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) strategy on 9-10th February 2020. The national strategy covers five years; 2020- 2024. The stakeholders are SPS technical experts and private sectors from across the country; these are from the MoLFR, Ministry of Commerce, SOMFRESH, SOMEAT, Jazeera Quarantine and ICPALD participated.

 Feb. 5-6. 2020, (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia): IGAD region exports only 50% and less than 10% of live animals and meat respectively to huge Middle East and North African (MENA) countries’ annual demand, an indication of a big potential to exploit if appropriate enhancement measures are taken.  IGAD Center for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD) in collaboration with FAO established in 2016 an inter-regional technical committee of Chief Veterinary Officers (CVO) of IGAD exporting and MENA importing countries to frequently discuss and review the impediments to exports; enhance trust and transparency and propose solutions. Prior meetings were held in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

This workshop was organized by ICPALD in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 5-6th February 2020 and was officially opened by Hon Dr. Gebregziabher Gebreyohannes, State Minister of Livestock; Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopia. He emphasized on the importance for IGAD countries to enhance animal disease surveillance, vaccination and disease control as one way of improving compliance with sanitary requirements to increase their market share to MENA countries. In this regard, IGAD member states have signed MOUs on crossborder coordination and collaboration on animal health and sanitary measures, developed Standard methods and procedures (SMP) & Standard operating procedures (SOP) for export quarantines and trained quarantine staff to promote compliance with SPS measure of importing countries. Director of ICPALD, Dr. Solomon Munyua and FAO Sub-regional Coordinator, Dr. David Phiri made welcome remarks. Twenty three (23) participants who included CVOs and officers in-charge of quarantine facilities from Egypt, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Jordan and CVOs or their representatives from South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia and the Laboratory Manager, Deputy Technical Manager, Djibouti Regional Quarantine attended. After discussing the status of export and compliance from IGAD countries and collaborations, trust and transparency situations on both sides the following recommendations made.

The recommendations

1. The exporters from IGAD and importers from MENA countries should be considered in the fifth IGAD-MENA inter-regional technical meeting to learn more from the traders and strengthen linkages and technical support from the regulatory bodies of both regions
2. Exporting IGAD countries should harmonize laboratory test kits and reagents with MENA importing countries to minimize detection of false sero-positives and avoid consignment rejections
3. IGAD CVOs and technical staff should inform their exporters of any change in import requirements as received from MENA counterparts to mitigate non- compliance with sanitary measures-

4. Continue supporting the established IGAD-MENA technical committee to facilitate open communication, enhance trust and transparency to promote trade between the two regions

5. Facilitate training for trade agents in exporting countries on basic requirements including proper documentation

 

ICPALD expresses its appreciation to FAO sub–regional office of Eastern Africa (SFE) for funding this activity.