Supplementary Act A/SA.20/02/12 Transforming the Regional Animal Health Centre in Bamako into a Specialized Centre for the Community

Jurisdiction: African Regional Bodies · Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
Citation: Act 2-SA20 of 2012
Date: 17 February 2012
Language: English
Type: Legislation
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Economic Community of West African States

Supplementary Act A/SA.20/02/12 Transforming the Regional Animal Health Centre in Bamako into a Specialized Centre for the Community

Act 2-SA20 of 2012

Published in official journal 60 on 17 February 2012
Commenced in full
[This is the version of this document at 17 February 2012.]

The High Contracting Parties;MINDFUL of Articles 7, 8 and 9 of the ECOWAS Treaty as amended, establishing the Authority of Heads of State and Government and defining its composition and functions;MINDFUL of the provisions of Article 88 of the said ECOWAS Treaty;MINDFUL of the General Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Economic Community of West African States signed in 22 April 1978 in Lagos;MINDFUL of Article 25 of the said ECOWAS Treaty on Agricultural Development and Food Security;MINDFUL of Decision A/DEC.11/01/05 adopting the ECOWAS Agricultural Policy;RECALLING the guiding principles of the 2007-2020 ECOWAS Agricultural Strategic Plan which is the ideal matrix for integrating the Member States' livestock policies as well as those of the ten-year programme for combating avian influenza and transboundary diseases, as part of the fight against animal diseases;BEARING IN MIND that the spread of transboundary animal diseases, including zoonoses, is of concern to all ECOWAS Member States;AWARE THAT the effectiveness of the fight against the diseases requires coordinated support for the development of national and regional strategies;NOTING that the Animal Health Centre in Bamako, with which ECOWAS has signed various partnership agreements in the area of Animal Health, has satisfactorily carried out the missions assigned to it, which has led to significant progress in the implementation of Agricultural, Livestock and Rural Development Programmes in the sub-region;AWARE of the pertinent needs expressed by the Community in that regard;RECOGNIZING the need, in the light of the Recommendation of the Beijing Conference of January 2006, to set up this structure as a Regional Animal Health Centre (RAHC) aimed at providing a strategy coordination and harmonization framework to monitor and evaluate interventions for combating avian influenza and transboundary animal diseases in West Africa;WELCOMING, without reservation, the Government of Mali's offer to allocate some offices to the Regional Animal Health Centre within the same premises as those allocated to the OIE Regional Representation for Africa and provide additional offices and equipment on the basis of the needs expressed;DESIROUS of transforming the Bamako Animal Health Centre into a Specialized Centre for the Community;ON THE RECOMMENDATION of the Sixty-sixth Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers held in Abuja, Nigeria on 16-17 August 2011.HEREBY AGREE AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1 – Transformation into a Specialized Centre

1.By this Supplementary Act, the Regional Animal Health Centre in Bamako is hereby transformed into an ECOWAS Specialized Community Centre on Animal issues.

2.The Regional Animal Health Centre shall be established in Bamako.

3.The President of the ECOWAS Commission shall sign the Headquarters Agreement with the relevant Malian Authorities as soon as possible.

Article 2 – Supervision - Objectives and missions of the RAHC

1.The Regional Animal Health Centre "RAHC" shall be under the administrative and technical supervision of the ECOWAS Commission.

2.The aim of the Regional Animal Health Centre (RAHC) shall be to provide a framework for the coordination and harmonization of the monitoring and evaluation strategies of interventions for combating avian influenza and transboundary animal diseases in West Africa, through the implementation of the 2007-2020 ECOWAS Agricultural Strategic Plan.

3.In that regard, the mandate of the Regional Animal Health Centre (RAHC) shall be to:

i.coordinate the national animal health policies of the ECOWAS region;

ii.support the design of national and regional strategies combating transboundary animal diseases, including zoonoses, in the ECOWAS region;

iii.monitor the sub-regional mechanism for preventing and combating avian influenza in close partnership with the AU/IBAR;

iv.improve the animal health notification system in consonance with OIE standards and the WAHIS system

v.strengthen poultry and avifauna epidemiological monitoring by setting up epidemio-surveiilance networks;

vi.inform the ECOWAS Member States about the local and regional situation, as well as the risk of outbreak and/or spread of the avian influenza and transboundary animal diseases;

vii.build the capacities of diagnostic laboratories and monitor regional laboratory networks;

viii.harmonize national emergency plans for the control of avian influenza and other trans-boundary and zoonotic animal diseases;

ix.monitor and assess the application of the control measures (slaughtering, vaccination campaigns);

x.information, communication and sensitization of the people and groups of breeders in the ECOWAS region;

xi.strengthen the socio-economic networks of the cattle-meat sector;

xii.conduct a feasibility study of national and regional investment programmes;

xiii.identify the weak points in veterinary services that require legislative and regulatory measures and, subsequently, after the PVS evaluations conducted by OIE in collaboration with ECOWAS, FAO and Donors, help seek the relevant investments to improve their efficacy and sustainability.

xiv.Support the national good governance policies of veterinary services by gradually harmonizing them with OIE standards;

xv.Build capacity through training seminars and workshops for Veterinary Services Directors, their staff (focal points), and breeders associations, private veterinary officers on OIE standards and best practices (prevention of health risks arising from the trade in animals and foodstuffs of animal origin);

xvi.Harmonize policies on the registration (national and/or regional) and control of vaccines, veterinary medicines while laying stress on the quality of veterinary products used for animal health;

xvii.Mobilize resources for the Ten-Year Regional Programme for combating Avian Influenza and transboundary and emerging diseases in West Africa.

Article 3 – Institutional framework of the Centre

1.The Centre shall be a specialized ECOWAS technical animal health structure responsible for executing tasks relating to the implementation of the ECOWAS Livestock Policy.

2.The Centre shall be under the supervision of the Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, acting by delegation from the President of the ECOWAS Commission.

Article 4 – Miscellaneous provisions

1.The areas of intervention, the rules on the governance, the administration and financing of the Agency, its relationship with the other ECOWAS agriculture and livestock operational structures, the criteria and types of operation, the processing of financing dossiers and the recruitment of the staff of the Agency, shall be in conformity with the relevant ECOWAS regulatory texts.

2.The Centre's operational Rules shall be adopted by the Council of Ministers upon proposal by the ECOWAS Commission.

Article 5 – Entry into force

This Supplementary Act shall enter into force upon its publication. Consequently, signatory Member States undertake to commence the implementation of its provisions once it comes into force.

Article 6 – Publication

This Supplementary Act, which shall enter into force upon its signature, shall be published by the ECOWAS Commission in the Community Official Journal within thirty (30) days of its publication. It shall also be published by each Member State in its Gazette within the same time-frame as that specified above, after its notification by the Commission.IN WITNESS WHEREOF WE, the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, have appended our signatures to this Supplementary Act

Done at Abuja this 17^th day of February 2012In a single original in English, French and Portuguese, all three (3) texts being equally authentic

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