RAHC GABORONE

Background

Established in June 2007, the FAO ECTAD Unit is hosted by the OIE Sub-regional Representation as a partner in the Regional Animal Health Centre (RAHC) for Southern Africa, based in Gaborone, Botswana. The OIE SRR was set up in early 2006 with the appointment of the Sub-regional Representative, shortly after joined by his Technical Assistant. In January 2008, OIE and FAO were joined by the Coordinator for the AU-IBAR led SPINAP [1] project and in October 2008 by the AU-IBAR Representative for Southern Africa.

With all three institutional partners in place, the RAHC is now complete since October 2008.

The RAHC is a major cooperation partner for the SADC [2] Secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana, more specifically its Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate (FANR) and its Livestock Development Unit.

Role of the RAHC

The livestock sector in Southern Africa is a major contributor to the economy of most of the Member States of SADC. The livestock sector is faced with major challenges, animal diseases of transboundary nature being one of them. These TADs can be a major hindrance to international and regional trade and lead to reduced productivity.

SADC in its endeavour to implement its RISDP [3] has set out to improve livestock health and production and to develop harmonised policies on livestock for its Member States in the framework of a Regional Agricultural Policy.

The RAHC offers the expertise of its partner institutions to SADC in support to the achievements of these goals on the principal of subsidiarity. In addition, direct support is given to countries that request this assistance. The RAHC can therefore be seen as an entry point for country requests related to animal health as well as for donors who are interested to support the livestock sector at regional or national level.

The role of the ECTAD unit in RAHC

The distribution of roles and functions between the institutional partners OIE, FAO, AU-IBAR is well laid out. The role of FAO in this context is on the side of field implementation, training and direct support to disease control and prevention.

Initially established to strengthen FAO’s capacity to respond effectively to the HPAI crisis, the ECTAD unit, particularly in HPAI non-infected regions, gives support to all economically important TADs, in close coordination with the specific roles of OIE (standard setting) and AU-IBAR (policy).

ECTAD Southern Africa started projects and interventions in support of disease control and prevention for HPAI, FMD, ASF, CBPP, Rabies, Anthrax, RVF and is preparing to expand this list as and when required.

The ECTAD unit implements its regional activities in close collaboration with and through the SADC /FANR Livestock Unit.

The ECTAD unit implements its direct country support activities in close collaboration with the country FAO Representations and their Emergency Coordination Units and the Ministries of Agriculture in-country.