About us
The WOAH Sub-Regional Representation for Eastern Africa
October 26, 2019
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Following the establishment of the OIE Regional Representation for Africa in 2000, followed by the establishment of Sub-Regional Representations for Southern Africa (in 2006) and North Africa (in 2009), Kenya was successful in its bid to host the Sub-Regional Representation for Eastern Africa in its capital Nairobi.
The Representation began its activities in January 2010, with the appointment by the then OIE Director General, Dr Bernard Vallat, of a Sub-Regional Representative, Dr. Walter Masiga, former Director of the African Union’s Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR). Also, Dr Masiga had been a valued member of the OIE Working Group on Animal Welfare for many years and had by 2010 conducted several high profile fact-finding missions on avian influenza in African countries.
Dr. Walter Masiga, OIE Representative (2010 – 2016).
Picture © P. Bastiaensen (oie) 2013.
A Programme Officer, Dr Antoine Maillard, was seconded to the OIE by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (France Cooperation) in June 2010, thereby launching the activities out of the African Union buildings in Westlands, Nairobi where AU-IBAR and FAO-ECTAD were already working together under the Regional Animal Health Centre (RAHC) principles.
Towards the end of 2010, a Secretary and an Administrative and Financial Assistant, Ms. Loise Ndungu and Ms Grace Omwega respectively, were recruited to provide administrative support to the Representation.
A host-country agreement with the Government of Kenya was signed in 2011.
Dr Antoine Maillard, OIE Programme Officer (2010 – 2012).
Picture © V. Brioudes (oie) 2010.
Ms. Loise Ndungu, OIE Secretary (2010 – 2016).
Picture © P. Bastiaensen (oie) 2013.
The Representation itself – from its new offices in the diplomatic and banking services’ borough of Upper Hill – was officially inaugurated on 6 June 2011 in the presence of the OIE Director General at the time, Dr Bernard Vallat, and many OIE Delegates and guests.
Dr Antoine Maillard ended his assignment with the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (France Cooperation) in July 2012.
A second Programme Officer, Dr Patrick Bastiaensen, was appointed in January 2013, an OIE position supported by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) or French Development Agency (until the end of 2017).
Since its inception in 2010, the Representation has grown from strength to strength, not only in staff numbers (soon 6 technical staff), linked to an increasing array of portfolios, programmes and projects, but also in terms of financial responsibility increasing from EUR 192,000 in 2010 to EUR 672,000 in 2019.
It is during this period that the region not only saw AU-PANVAC and ICIPE become recognised as OIE Collaborating Centres, but also a period that saw a lot of focus on antimicrobial resistance, rabies, peste des petits ruminants and foot-and-mouth disease, in sync with the roll-out of several global initiatives targeting these same threats in recent years, the latest of which is African swine fever.
Since the creation of the Republic of South Sudan in 2011 and its subsequent membership of the OIE in 2014, the Representation covers 13 Members in eastern Africa, some of which are shared with the southern Africa region : Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The office is also the main liaison with the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and the East African Community (EAC), with which cooperation agreements or MoUs were signed in 2014, 2016 and 2019 respectively, as well as with several African Union agencies based in the region (IBAR, PATTEC, PANVAC, CDC)
Dr Thomas Daido Dulu joined the Representation on 1st January 2018 as Programme Officer, on a three-year secondment by the Government of Kenya. Thomas has coordinated the ongoing global livestock diseases eradication and control programmes in the region, in particular the Eastern Africa strategies and roadmaps for the Progressive Control Pathway for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD-PCP) and the Global Eradication Programme for Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR-GEP), working closely with relevant regional and national stakeholders in eastern Africa.
Picture © Communication (icipe) 2017.
Except for Somalia, every Member Country in the region has been visited at least once over the years in order to get a better understanding of the local environment in which the VS operate. Together with the invaluable information provided by numerous OIE PVS assessments, conducted since 2006, this has turned this office into a recognised knowledge centre for animal health and welfare for the region.
As the OIE office became more established and better known, the OIE also became increasingly associated to several governance bodies (coordination committees, advisory committees, steering committees) of institutions, programmes and projects, such as AU-IBAR, PAN-SPSO (AU-IBAR), GALVmed, STSD (AU-IBAR and IGAD), SMP-AH (AU-IBAR and IGAD), SEGA (Indian Ocean Commission), Bee Health Project (ICIPE , AU-IBAR), the PPR Control and Eradication Coordination Committee (IGAD), Animal Welfare Platform Africa (APAW, AU-IBAR), African Small Companion Animals’ Network (AFSCAN, WSAVA), Eastern and Southern Africa Veterinary Educational Establishments (ESAVEE) and many more…
…the office has been instrumental in the delivery of training, both of newly appointed OIE Delegates (Nairobi, 2011) as of several categories of OIE National Focal Points :
Dr Jane Lwoyero joined the Representation on 1st July 2018 as Programme Officer, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), completing a team with positions in Paris, Gaborone and Bangkok, all being supported by the Fleming Fund (United Kingdom). Jane is responsible for the delivery of the OIE Strategy on antimicrobial resistance at sub-regional and national level and is involved in all (Sub)Regional Tripartite (FAO, OIE, WHO) initiatives pertaining to AMR, including the liaison with Africa-CDC and AU-IBAR, as well as the OIE-led collection of antimicrobial use data and the capacity-building efforts targeting national animal health and public health officers .
Picture © O. Valsson (oie) 2019.
Above : the OIE team in Nairobi as per 1 May 2020. Fltr : Patrick Bastiaensen, Jane Lwoyero, Thomas Dulu (Programme officers), Grace Omwega (Administrative and financial assistant), Samuel Wakhusama (Representative) and Daniel Juma (messenger, external service provider).
Below : aerial view of Upper Hill, with OIE’s offices in Taj Towers on the right (bottom) side.
The OIE would like to thank the Republic of Kenya for hosting the Sub-Regional Representation and for providing office facilities since 2010 and for the secondment of Dr Thomas Dulu since 2018. The OIE would also like to thank the following resource partners for their financial support to the Sub-Regional Representation for Eastern Africa:
The voluntary contributions received from the aforementioned partners have funded capacity building activities and workshops in the sub-region as well as human resources and operational costs for the Sub-Representation.
Please check this website regularly for other celebratory events later this year. Contact us : [email protected]
