Joint Masters Program in Transboundary Animal Disease Management MTDM

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Joint Masters Program in Transboundary Animal
Disease Management (MTDM)
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Introduction

• The idea of having a joint masters program in
  transboundary animal disease management was
  initiated in summer of 2005 in Berlin
• The universities involved in the initiation of
  the idea were
• Addis Ababa University from Ethiopia
• Makerere University from Uganda
• University of Khartoum and Sudan University of
  Science and Technology from Sudan
• Free University of Berlin from Europe

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• The initiative was named Nile Valley
  Epidemiology Initiative indicative of the
  African countries involved
• Later on, University of Nairobi was included
  after the second meeting, which was hosted by
  Sudan and Khartoum Universities
• The Universities had several meetings in Berlin,
  Khartoum and Nairobi to develop and enrich the
  idea of joint masters program and develop a
  proposal for EU EDULINK Program funding

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• The proposal was submitted to EDULINK and
  subsequently selected for funding in January 2008
• The partners are now completing curriculum
  development and planning to advertise the program
  in September 2008
• The next meeting will take place in late August
  in Khartoum to finalize the curriculum and
  academic regulations
• Admission of students will take place in April
  2009

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Objectives of the project

• Overall
• Strengthen the capacity of national veterinary
  services in Africa to control and manage
  transboundary and epidemic diseases more
  effectively in regionally concerted manner

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• Specific objectives
• Build human resource capacity by producing
  effective cadre of professionals in tarnsboundary
  animal disease control and management
• Strengthen the regional network of the Veterinary
  Faculties of participating universities

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Relevance of the project

• Millennium development goals
• Goal 1. Eradicate extreme poverty hunger
• The role of livestock in fighting poverty and
  hunger is tremendous in the Nile Valley region,
  where livestock resource is huge
• The productivity of livestock under small holders
  condition is determined by many factors among
  which animal health is crucial
• Furthermore, animal health also determines the
  opportunities for export markets of animal and
  animal products

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• The hygienic or sanitary requirements by
  countries for animal and animal products in the
  international markets is getting more stringent
• This demands strong animal health care services,
  which could respond well to the requirements
• Transboundary animal diseases are the most
  important in determining the potential for export
  markets
• The success of control and management of
  transboundary animal diseases needs a concerted
  effort by neighboring countries
• African countries may have the interest but not
  the capacity to deal with transboudary animal
  disease problems and hence need to create
  partnership to tackle regional problems

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• Goal 8. Develop a global partnership for
  development
• Trained manpower is highly required for the
  success of development programs of developing
  countries
• However, higher education institutions in Africa
  are mainly constrained by brain drain and lack of
  qualified professionals to teach and undertake
  research
• Creation and strengthening of regional
  partnerships is one option to alleviate this
  problem
• Resource (human and material) pooling
• Complementing each other with regard to views and
  experiences
• Furthermore, partnerships would create
  opportunities to identify common regional
  problems and give solutions in a concerted
  manner. This could also create an opportunity for
  exchange of knowledge and experience among
  partnering institutions

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• Contributions of HEs to sustainable development
• In general, spending on education is one of the
  keys for poverty reduction
• In Africa, agriculture is the largest economic
  sector and livestock provide 36 of the
  agricultural GDP
• About 70 the people in Africa keep livestock and
  about 200 million people depend on livestock
• Africa as a whole, holds about 20 of the worlds
  ruminant population but only 3 of the total
  value of world trade in animals and animal
  byproducts

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• This indicates that Africa has a huge potential
  for livestock export trade, but could not be
  exploited properly due to many reasons
• The livestock disease status in African countries
  plays as a key barrier for trade possibilities
  specially for export markets
• Twelve of the 15 most important transboundary
  animal diseases exist in Africa some of which are
  zoonotic
• High mortality due to these diseases leads to
  direct annual losses of 2 billion USD

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• Indirect losses are in the same order of
  magnitude
• Control costs of transboundary animal diseases
  escalate due to increasingly stringent
  regulations to meet export standards
• The requirements of SPS entailing new standards,
  regulations and technologies are not covered by
  conventional veterinary education
• It is necessary thus to prepare specialty
  programs in transboundary animal disease
  management to properly address the gap in the
  area
• The joint masters program in TADM is expected to
  initiate improvement of regulatory, technical and
  institutional deficits in Africa in general the
  Nile Valley region in particular

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• Quality of higher education
• Currently, there are efforts in Africa to expand
  and diversify higher education
• This effort is highly compromising the quality of
  education due to incompatibilities between the
  large number of graduates required and the
  limited human and material resources available in
  the countries
• African countries have difficulties in
  maintaining highly qualified people due to low
  remunerations among other factors

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• Countries are also constrained by finance to
  establish and maintain material resources such as
  buildings, laboratory facilities and others such
  as IC facilities which are required for quality
  education
• Establishments of joint programs in consortium
  could partly be solutions to such type of
  problems
• Human resource pooling
• Student exchange
• Harmonization and standardization of curricula at
  regional and international levels
• Identification of common research agenda
• Creations of centers of excellence
• The capabilities of partner institutions to
  cooperate and coordinate training activities will
  be enhanced

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• These could substantially improve the quality of
  education and also result in better efficiency
• The consortium would also create opportunities
  for partnering countries and professionals to
  form and/or link with information networks
  internationally that could make the learning
  process continuous
• The countries would get up-to-date information
  about the status of transboundary animal diseases
  in the region and knowledge generated through
  research could be accessed easily by
  professionals and animal health institutions

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• Ownership and sustainability
• Each partner institution is involved in the
  following activities
• Curriculum development
• Harmonization of academic regulations
• Selection of candidates for the course
• Teaching of courses
• Advising of students
• Examination of students
• These would create a sense of ownership among
  partner institutions

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• Sustainability
• To ensure sustainability
• Partner institutions will use the first pilot
  program for capacity building
• Curricula will be approved and accepted as own
  program in each partner institution
• Creation of links with international development
  agencies such as FAO, OIE, AU-IBAR, ASARECA,
  COMESA
• Integration of the project from the very
  beginning into government policies and
  investments
• In-housing of the program by all partner
  institutions

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• Brain drain
• Brain drain can be possibly reduced
• The program is mainly carried out in African
  University
• Joint degrees are offered to graduates
• Opportunities would be created for the graduates
  to work in African regional animal health
  institutions

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Future direction

• ACP countries shall come together to identify
  their common problems and should be willing to
  cooperate for common benefits
• ACP countries shall pool their resources to work
  together to tackle their common problems
• The problem of brain drain shall be given due
  attention by ACP countries governments

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• We hope that EDULINK continues to be a partner in
  supporting the joint efforts of ACP countries in
  their fight against poverty in general
• We also hope EDULINK continues to support
  sustainability of the joint masters program
  through
• Funding more programs,
• Promoting partnerships and
• Continuous follow up and support of the programs

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THANK YOU