WOAH
WORLD ORGANISATION FOR ANIMAL HEALTH (formerly known as the OIE)
Animal health impacts everyone’s health and is at the heart of everything we do.
COURTESY CALL
SO, LET'S BEGIN...
In a previous lesson, we presented the concept of a Chief Veterinary Officer for each and every country in the world, the person who oversees all of VS in that country. If you are part of an animal health delegation traveling to another country, you should plan as your first stop a courtesy call with this CVO or her/his designated representative. You can find the name of every CVO on the WOAH Website. Go to www.woah.org/en/home/ then “Who We are” then “Members” and the name of every CVO (Delegate) for every one of the 182 member countries will be listed.
WOAH - TOOL FOR EVALUATING THE VS
Here's how the VS is evaluated: First, the CVO of any country will ask the WOAH to please send a team of experts (most of the experts are retired CVOs) to her or his country to carry out an evaluation called the "Performance of its Veterinary Service" (PVS.) This PVS is an assessment of the VS on a huge array of criteria. This team of experts spends three weeks assessing a multitude of aspects, and then writes its comprehensive report that goes back to that country's CVO. Then this CVO will decide whether or not to make the report public and post it on the WOAH website.
A country can later request a PVS "Follow-on Evaluation", which follows a similar format, to assess new improvements as time goes on. Following this effort, a "Gap Analysis" can be done, which is more prescriptive, stating what the country that was evaluated specifically needs to do to improve its VS capabilities.
Most recently, a "Targeted Assistance Plan" might be added after all this to target the specific types of help required.
World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS)
WELCOME
Now, are you wondering about what animal diseases are present in any country (but probably not Zingo!) That's on the website too... Check it out... The World Animal Health Information System page on the WOAH site...
LINK IN BY CLICKING ON THE ABOVE ILLUSTRATION
182 countries-information
From this World Animal Health page, you can find information for each of the 182 member countries:
- Animal population
- Diseases/infections present
- Diseases absent or never occurred
- Zoonoses present and absent by country/territory
- Zoonoses present by disease (all countries)
- Veterinary personnel
- National Reference Laboratories
- Vaccine production by country/territory
- Vaccine production by disease (all countries)
Each member country is required to report on all of these parameters every 6 months. Sometimes the Delegate is late, or there is a regime change, and so don’t despair if the information is not absolutely the most recent, but for most it will be very close.
Next, your alma mater has asked you that if you go to this country, they would like to make a connection with a veterinary school there. Okay, you say. BUT, you have no idea if they have a veterinary school or how many they might have.
Well, WOAH has an answer for this also…. You’ll find this under the “Solidarity” tab on the WOAH Homepage, then go to Veterinary and Veterinary Paraprofessional Education. Halfway down this page you’ll find a link to Global Veterinary Education Establishments (VEEs), click here. Did you know there are 553 VEEs in the world? You can see each country and how many they have, then click on the PDF for the complete list.
Okay, this might be enough for this lesson, almost too much information! Remember that if you go to any country including
Zingo, you will NOT be treating, vaccinating, or performing surgery
on animals.
You might be wondering, well, what kinds of projects are possible then??
In fact, BELOW are some projects, based on all the information we have presented here, that were implemented to provide sustainable improvement, in various countries:
successful programs
ETHIOPIA - TAD PROGRAM
ETHIOPIA - TAD PROGRAM
ETHIOPIA - TAD PROGRAM
In Ethiopia, reporting of Transboundary Animal Diseases, from the field to the region, was not occurring, so the VS was not able to spend its limited resources wisely for control. A program of training farmers on awareness and reporting was conducted, resulting in improved recognition and reporting of disease!
CHAD - RESTORING VALUE
ETHIOPIA - TAD PROGRAM
ETHIOPIA - TAD PROGRAM
In Chad, camels were decreasing in value, causing the young pastoralists to leave their communities in search of other opportunities. Field diagnostics were implemented, pinpointing the problem as surra, a trypanosomal disease, and that there were recurring problems with resistance in the drugs used to treat this disease. Training on how to diagnose surra, and then demonstrating how to conduct parasiticide resistance trials, solved the problem, and restored the value of camels on the marketplace.
more programs
BANGLADESH - CONTINUING ED
BANGLADESH - CONTINUING ED
BANGLADESH - CONTINUING ED
A nascent program for licensing of veterinarians was developed, but it could not progress further because of the lack of any continuing education that had ever been offered. A pilot program of continuing education was developed and delivered, creating increasing incentive to institute this as a recurring offering.
TRAIN-THE-TRAINER
BANGLADESH - CONTINUING ED
BANGLADESH - CONTINUING ED
Ongoing TRAIN-THE-TRAINER courses, and bringing new up-to-date information and necropsy techniques to local veterinarians... these photos are from Uganda where participants are learning how to do blood smears and cell counts. They will then train others downstream.
GRAY MATTER!
Building gray matter is ALWAYS sustainable, and done right, it makes for great ambassadors also. Consequently, the NEXT lesson will be about ADULT LEARNING, or how to conduct fun and interactive lessons, and to be a leader in effective trainings without PowerPoints or a podium!
YOUR ASSIGNMENT FOR THIS LESSON:
Explore the WOAH website, peruse some evaluations from the PVS pathway, and write one or two paragraphs suggesting a useful project in a particular country. Write the paragraph to a mythical funder, complete with the reasons why this should be accomplished and the benefits to the country as a result of your work!