Ebene, Port Louis, Mauritius

Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) Secretary General, H.E. Hamada Madi signs Cooperation Agreement with the OIE.

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The OIE Programme Officer, Dr. Patrick Bastiaensen (left), is handed a signed copy of the Cooperation Agreement between the OIE and the IOC by its Secretary General, H.E. Madi Hamada (right).
Picture (c) Fanny Vidal (IOC) 2016.)

The Secretary General of the Indian Ocean Commission, H.E. Madi Hamada and the Director General of the OIE, Dr. Monique Eloit, have signed the Cooperation Agreement, granting reciprocal observer status to both Organisations.

The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) is an inter-governmental organisation, established in 1982 in Port Louis (Mauritius) and institutionalised in 1984 through the Victoria Agreement (Seychelles). It covers five countries and territories situated in the Indian Ocean, along the East African coast : the Comoros’ Union, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion island (French overseas Département) and the Seychelles. These countries are also Members of the OIE. The Union of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles are also ACP countries (signatories to the Lome Convention and the Cotonou Agreement of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries with the European Union) and are also members of COMESA and/or SADC.

Its main missions are to strengthen the ties of friendship and solidarity between the populations of the Indian Ocean, to build regional projects focusing on sustainable development to protect these populations, improve their living conditions and preserve the natural resources on which they are strongly dependent. It is the only African regional economic community constituted exclusively of islands, the IOC defending their insular interests on the regional and international stage and promoting a more sustainable and inclusive development. Its headquarters is based in Ebène, Mauritius, and includes a Health Surveillance Unit (HSU).

In this area of health, the IOC has shown leadership with a One Health programme called Epidemiological Surveillance and Alert Management (SEGA in French) which brings together public health services and animal health services of member countries, in order to better address the many challenges that have hit the region over the past decade, to start with the epidemic of Chikungunya, followed by Rift Valley fever and other (often vector-borne) diseases at the interface between man, domestic animals, and wildlife (bubonic plague, dengue, leptospirosis, West Nile fever, rabies, etc …).

In the spirit of the SEGA Network, to which the OIE has been providing technical advice since 2013, the two Organisations will cooperate in the following areas:

• The organisation of workshops, meetings and seminars focusing on information with regard to surveillance and control of animal diseases and risk analysis methodologies;
• The technical cooperation in the field of animal health;
• The exchange of scientific information and publications;
• The strengthening of national veterinary services and of epidemiological surveillance systems in the Member States of the IOC;
• The promotion of the Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) tool;
• The dissemination of information on the occurrence or evolution of animal diseases and zoonoses, as well as on food safety;
• The organisation of specific missions in cases of major health events.

Negotiations are underway with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC) for similar Cooperation Agreements.

All pictures (c) Fanny Vidal (IOC) 2016.

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December 13, 2019
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