Email Print The VET-GOV Programme 4th Steering Committee meeting

The meeting was officially opened by Professor Ahmed Elsawalhy, Director of AU-IBAR on behalf of the Commissioner DREA in presence of Mr. Mwangi Njuru representing the EC; Dr. Bouna Diop representing FAO; Dr. Neo Mapitse and Dr. Patrick Bastiaensen representing OIE, and representatives from COMESA, EAC, IGAD and SADC.

The PSC deliberated on the following key issues:

  • Matters arising from the previous meeting and follow-up on reports;
  • Technical Consolidated Progress report; and
  • Financial report by AU-IBAR.

Following fruitful deliberations and,
Considering the mandate of the PSC to provide strategic guidance to the Programme and oversee coherent implementation of the different contribution agreements;
Noting the progress made by the project after the third Steering Committee Meeting in Abuja;
Taking cognizance of project implementation at country level and RECs;

The PSC commends the VET-GOV implementing partners for good partnerships and the important progress made since the last meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.

The PSC endorses the following:

  1. The progress on the implementation of the 3rd SCM recommendations;
  2. The technical consolidated progress report;
  3. The VET-GOV Programme Monitoring and Evaluation report; and
  4. The financial report presented by AU-IBAR.

The PSC agreed the following:

  1. Participation of RECs and country representatives to the PSC Meeting
    • Encourages RECs to enhance their participation to the PSC Meetings by ensuring at least the presence of the responsible of their livestock desks.
    • Recommends AU-IBAR, in collaboration with FAO and OIE, to take necessary action to invite 2 or 3 representatives from the VET GOV beneficiary countries to assist and make a presentation during the PSC Meetings.
    • Recommends AU-IBAR, FAO and OIE, in collaboration with RECs, to take necessary action to prepare and submit to the PSC Members at least 10 days prior their meeting a consolidated report on the programme implementation progress.
  2. Information sharing and coordination between the key implementing partners
    • Recommends VET-GOV key implementing partners (AU-IBAR, FAO and OIE) to enhance information sharing and coordination by organising the Programme Management Meeting (PMM) separately from the PSC and on more regular basis and by consolidating/formalising the quarterly meetings already established between them with the participation of the EC Delegation in Kenya.
  3. VET-GOV activities at country and REC levels
    • Encourages AU-IBAR and FAO in collaboration with RECs to continue their efforts to ensure functional linkages between the Livestock Policy Hubs (LPH) with the CAADP process at national and regional levels.
    • Recommends them to accompany the CAADP process at both national and regional levels to ensure that livestock and animal health issues are incorporated significantly in the national agriculture investment plans.
    • Recommends AU-IBAR and FAO to identify a critical mass of experts to be able to support the CAADP process in particular to participate in the peer review work.
    • In order to overcome shortcomings related to activities conducted in MSs and RECs, recommends the key implementing partners to endeavour to harmonize, coordinate and fine-tune VET-GOV activities to the REC structure.
    • Recommends AU-IBAR to engage the Pan-African Parliament to support policy implementation in agriculture and food security programmes.
  4. Support development and/or harmonization of regional contingency and emergency plans
    • Encourages AU-IBAR, OIE and FAO, in collaboration with WHO, to engage necessary actions to promote the establishment of regional contingency and emergency plans for the most important TADs building upon the past experiences and also to facilitate the harmonization of regional contingency and emergency plans at continental level.
  5. COMESA Regional Livestock Policy development
    • Commends COMESA Secretariat's efforts aiming to develop a livestock regional policy and encourages AU-IBAR, FAO and OIE to support the process.
  6. ARIS II
    • Recommends AU-IBAR to address the problems hampering the rolling out of ARIS-II and provide more support to enhance its roll out.
  7. Guidelines on call for proposals for pilot activities
    • Endorses the revised guidelines on call for proposals for pilot activities proposed by the PMCM and requests AU-IBAR to provide adequate funds to backstop pilot activities with the participation of FAO and OIE.
  8. Mid-term evaluation
    • The PSC recommends the Mid-term evaluation to be done in the first quarter 2014 before the SCM.
  9. Others
    • Recommends VET-GOV key implementing partners to undertake a Knowledge Attitude Practices (KAP) study to assess the tacit change and knowledge.
    • Recommends that FAO and OIE also make financial reports in order to enable the programme to make timely informed decision.
    • Recommends VET-GOV key implementing partners to enhance the visibility of the programme.

The PSC decides to hold the next steering committee meeting in June 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Acknowledgement

The PSC Members thank SADC for the support extended during the preparation and the conduct of the meeting, and the European Commission for funding the programme.