5th OIE Regional Deans Meeting (Eastern and Southern Africa) Maputo

Overview of Guests of Honour and attending Deans following the opening ceremony.
Picture © P. Bastiaensen (oie) 2016.

Overlooking the Indian Ocean, the fifth annual meeting of Deans and Principals of Faculties and Schools of Veterinary Medicine or Science was held in Maputo, Mozambique, from 11 to 12 August 2016. The meeting was hosted by the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) with the financial support of the OIE. A ceremony was held in the presence of academic staff and students, the Mozambican Veterinary Council, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (Ministério de Agriculture e Segurança Alimentar, MASA) staff and senior staff of the Mozambican veterinary services (Direcção de Serviços de Veterinaria). The meeting was declared officially open by the Chancellor of the Eduardo Mondlane University, Prof. Orlando Quilambo.

Chaired by the Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Prof. Rafael Escrivão, the group reviewed progress made since the August 2015 meeting in Nairobi in terms of curricular reviews to meet the requirements of the OIE Recommendations on the competencies of graduating veterinarians (day-one competencies) and the OIE Guidelines on the veterinary education core curriculum. The recommendations of the recently concluded 4th OIE Global Conference on Veterinary Education, held in Bangkok, Thailand in June 2016 were also shared and discussed.

The representatives of the OIE at the meeting delivered a presentation on the current state of implementation of the OIE Twinning Programme for Veterinary Educational Establishments (VEE) and the recently established database of Veterinary Educational Establishments (VEE), accessible online, which was followed by a proposal from the Dean of the Onderstepoort-based Faculty of Veterinary Sciences (South Africa) on a multilateral “collaborative twinning agreement” of regional VEEs.
The Deans, in an attempt to catch up with delays in the implementation of the first action plan, updated the 2010 – 2015 “Strategic Plan for greater Collaboration and Harmonisation of Veterinary Education between Veterinary Education Establishments within the Region” in order to attain or re-direct certain objectives for the next year (2016 – 2017). This includes the formal establishment of the Southern and Eastern Africa Association of VEE (SEAAVEE) as a charity in the Republic of South Africa, with a permanent secretariat based at the University of Pretoria in Onderstepoort, South Africa, to take over from the current meeting secretariat in Maputo by the end of the year latest.

FLtr : Dr. Fernando Rodrigues, Deputy Director of Veterinary Services, Dr. Moetapele Letshwenyo, OIE Representative (Southern Africa), Her Excellency Dr. Luisa Celma Meque, Deputy-Minister of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA), Dr. Americo de Conceição, Director of Veterinary Services and OIE Delegate of Mozambique, and Dr. Patrick Bastiaensen, OIE Programme Officer (Eastern Africa).
Picture (c) MASA (2016).

In the margin of the meeting, the OIE Representative for Southern Africa, Dr Moetapele Letshwenyo, paid a courtesy visit to the Deputy-Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA), Her Excellency Dr. Luisa Celma Meque to brief her on the OIE in general and the importance of veterinary services, as well as to thank the Republic of Mozambique for its continued support as a long-standing and reliable OIE Member Country. The meeting took place in the presence of the new Director of Veterinary Services and OIE Delegate for Mozambique, Dr Americo de Conceição.

The Deans were also invited to the official inauguration ceremony of the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad (SPANA) – funded Clinical Skills Centre (CSC) at the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, again officiated by the Chancellor of the Eduardo Mondlane University, Prof. Orlando Quilambo and the SPANA Veterinary Programmes’ Director, Dr Francesca Compostella, who also delivered a presentation to the Deans on SPANA’s work in support of veterinary education in Africa.

The well organised meeting was attended by Deans and Principals of Veterinary Faculties and Schools/Colleges from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as by observers from SPANA and the OIE. Only Uganda (Makerere University) was unfortunately not represented at the meeting. The new chair of the SEAAVEE is Prof. Kennedy Choongo, Dean of the University of Zambia (UNZA) School of Veterinary Medicine in Lusaka who will host the next (6th) meeting in 2017.