PICTURES OF THE EVENT
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Almost 4 years after the OIE Sub-Regional Representation for Southern Africa was officially established in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana, in January 2006, the Representation has now been granted office space in the so-called ‘red block’, next to the main building of the Botswana Ministry of Agriculture headquarters in the centre of Gaborone.
Dr Monique Eloit, OIE Deputy Director General (left) and Dr Moetapele Letshwenyo, Deputy Principal Secretary of the Botswana Ministry of Agriculture (right). Picture (c) P. Bastiaensen (oie) 2009
Beginning of October the OIE Staff relocated to this refurbished two storey building at the Ministry site, in which 16 offices of the first floor were allocated to the OIE Sub-Regional Representation.
The OIE contingent in Botswana grew from one person (the Representative) in January 2006 to a number of 4 today, while at the same time, OIE has also assumed leadership of the Regional Animal Health Centre for Southern Africa (RAHC-SA), in application of the GF-TAD’s Agreement, and is hosting technical and administrative staff from the United Nations’ FAO (Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases) and the African Union (Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources). Overall the RAHC-SA now hosts 15 permanent and support staff.
A few weeks later, the OIE Deputy Director-General, Dr. Monique Eloit led the official hand-over ceremony of the keys to the new premises. Indeed, on November 10th, 2009 the Deputy Director-general was given the keys to the new offices from the representative of the Minister of Agriculture of Botswana, Dr Moetapele Letshwenyo in the presence of representatives of the two partner organizations of the OIE in the Regional Animal Health Centre for Southern Africa : FAO (ECTAD) and AU (IBAR). The former was represented by the FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr. Juan Lubroth and the latter by the Director of AU-IBAR, Dr. Ahmed El-Sawalhy. In her admittance speech, Dr Monique Eloit thanked the Government of Botswana for the generous offer to host the OIE Representation and its partners within the Ministry’s walls and expressed the wish that the physical proximity of Ministry and Representation would lead to enhanced cooperation and synergistic efforts for the benefit of animal health and welfare in Botswana and in southern Africa. She specifically thanked Dr Moetapele Letshwenyo, who, as previous OIE Delegate and now as Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, had been instrumental in brokering this hosting arrangement.
The Sub-Regional Representation now benefits from a modern and conducive working environment with spacious offices, ample parking space and up-to-date telecommunication, networking and multi-media services, along with a 30-person meeting room which is shared with the Ministry staff.
The contact details of the OIE Sub-Regional Representation and Regional Animal Health Centre for Southern Africa are :
All pictures (c) P. Bastiaensen (oie) 2009
