Dr Bachir Souley Kouato officially joined the OIE Regional Representation for Africa on 1 October 2020 as Regional Technical Coordinator of the Project “Professionalisation of Veterinary Para-Professionals” (P3V).
This position has been made possible with the support of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) which finances this project aimed at improving access to quality veterinary services for livestock farmers in French-speaking West Africa through the training of veterinary paraprofessionals or VPPs.
Bachir is a graduate of the Ecole Inter Etats des Sciences et Médecine Vétérinaire (EISMV) in Dakar (Senegal) and holds a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies (DEA) in Animal Biology from the University of Dakar (Senegal).
Professionally, he has worked mainly in the public sector of his native Niger, notably at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Niamey as a conscript in the national civil service and cumulatively as a teacher at the Practical Institute of Rural Development and then recruited as a veterinary officer at the Ministry of Animal Husbandry of Niger. He was also a consultant for some rural development NGOs.
In addition, he continued his studies to obtain a Master of Science (MSc) in Tropical Animal Health from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (Belgium). A few years later, Dr Souley Kouato completed his Doctorate in Veterinary Sciences (PhD) at the University of Liège (Belgium).
Dr. Souley Kouato, as a CAMES (African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education) Research Officer in Animal Biology and Health is one of the animal health specialists in his country. At the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN) he has assumed various responsibilities in the management of research and development (R&D) projects, particularly in animal health.
He has the ambition to offer his scientific and technical skills and his experience to the development of livestock production in general and in particular to the improvement of animal health through, among other things, capacity building, i.e. the training of the various stakeholders in livestock farming, including veterinary paraprofessionals in Africa. He can be contacted at [email protected]
