A consultative meeting designed to initiate the process of increased engagement with and involvement of ECOWAS Commission in T&T interventions through more formal collaborative arrangements with the African Union Commission on one hand and ECOWAS on the other was organized by the PATTEC coordination office in collaboration with the Government of Nigeria and ECOWAS, 7 - 8 June 2018 at ECOWAS affiliated campus, in Abuja, Nigeria. The engagements are foreseen within the framework of Protocol of Agreement between Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and AUC. The meeting was designed to accelerate the implementation of the Pan African tsetse and trypanosomosis eradication campaign (PATTEC) which was endorsed by the African Heads of State and Government through Decision AHG/Dec. 156 (XXXVI), urging Member States to act collectively to embark on a Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC).
Group Photo
The meeting brought together national PATTEC Coordinators from the ECOWAS Partner States including Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Togo and Senegal. In addition, participants included two T&T experts from the West Africa Region and two partners of PATTEC-Nigeria.
The meeting ended by putting the following recommendations to to ECOWAS Commission, AU-PATTEC and ECOWAS Partner States emanated from the meeting as follows:
• To ECOWAS Member States
o The meeting noted with concern the reduction of activities to address T&T at national level. The meeting noted that the reduced levels of activities are attributed to low levels on investment in T&T. The meeting recommended that countries should intensify national level resource mobilization efforts by exploring all available funding mechanisms at country level.
o Noting that all country presentations highlighted similar challenges in their national T&T intervention programmes, the meeting recommended that countries should incorporate lessons learned in the development of all new programmes to avoid making the same mistakes
o Noting that donors demand appreciable expenditure and implementation rates, the meeting recommended that in order to attract future funding from resource partners, countries need to demonstrate the ability to disburse funds on time.
o Noting the multiplicity of competing priorities for funding at all levels, the meeting recommended that Integrating T&T programmes in other development initiatives is a way to increase the chances of securing funding.
o Noting the ever growing competition for resources, the meeting urged ECOWAS countries to revise the regional project to reflect donor preferences and regional and national components so that it can be channeled to donors using regional funding windows through ECOWAS Commission.
o Recognizing the risk of losing the gains in areas where the T&T burden has been reduced, the meeting urged countries to develop strategies to sustain the gains registered in T&T interventions so that the momentum is not lost. In addition, countries are as a core principle urged to know the pest, use area-wide approach, think and act collectively.
• To ECOWAS Commission
o Noting that in the PATTEC model the regional coordination mechanism is underdeveloped, the meeting urged ECOWAS Commission to demonstrate leadership on T&T matters that have a regional bearing/implication including resource mobilization leveraging on existing regional funding windows
o Recognizing that T&T is not explicitly listed as one of the priority diseases in the ECOWAS Livestock Strategy in spite of its well documented impacts on rural development in the region, the meeting recommended that ECOWAS commission should reflect T&T challenge as a regional priority in accordance with the Decision of the African Heads of State and Government on PATTEC
o Noting the absence of a dedicated strategy on T&T , the meeting urged ECOWAS to take a leading role in collaboration with ECOWAS Member States and AU-PATTEC to develop a regional T&T management strategy
o Noting the need to expedite the process of putting T&T on the list of priority diseases in the ECOWAS region, the meeting recommended that AU-PATTEC should be invited to the next regional livestock networks meetings including the Directors of Veterinary Services to support the inclusion of T&T on the priority list of TADs and zoonoses. The meeting further recommended that the report of this meeting should be formally submitted through the relevant structures of ECOWAS.
• To AU-PATTEC Coordination Office
o Noting that most of the past recommendations calling for the involvement of ECOWAS in T&T management have not been followed up, the meeting urged AU-PATTEC to compile relevant past recommendations and formally submit them to the ECOWAS Commission for consideration /implementation.
o Noting that the challenges of a number of past projects have largely been attributed to lack of consideration of socio-economic analyses, the meeting urged PATTEC to promote a comprehensive socio-economic, institutional, technical and environmental (SITE) analysis approach in the identification of project areas.
o Recognizing the need to accurately identify isolated tsetse populations for effective area-wide approaches, the meeting urged PATTEC to facilitate access to the CIRAD/IAEA/FAO model data for identifying isolated tsetse populations in West Africa.
o Recognizing that AU-IBAR has been successful in mobilizing resources for the control of a wide range of priority TADs and zoonoses, the meeting recommended that AU-PATTEC should collaborate closely with AU-IBAR when engaging with resource partners on resource mobilization leveraging on the One Health approach.
The two days consultative meeting ended by closing remarks by ECOWAS representative, Dr Vivian and Dr Peter Dede, PATTEC-Nigeria Coordinator, and the Ag. AU-PATTEC Coordinator, Dr Gift Wanda.
