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GOAL 2: REDUCED FMD RISK IN THE EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD

REDUCING RISK FROM WEST EURASIA; PROPOSAL FOR A FMD MANAGEMENT SUPPORT UNIT

This was introduced by the Secretary; the EuFMD with EC support had been supporting actions in the TransCaucasus, Iran and Turkey for more than 5 years, with major national and bilateral (EuropeAid: Turkey, and TransCaucasus) investments in some countries. The West Eurasia Roadmap, and the PCPFMD as a framework for developing sustainable national strategy for FMD management, had been developed in response to the frequent transboundary epidemics and the interest of countries to use their national efforts and inputs to better effect. The West Eurasia Roadmap Meetings are now well established on an Annual Basis to review progress in the 14 countries of the region, and EuFMD has organised each of these. National, publically funded programmes characterise the region; past Roadmap meetings have called for more support to CVOs on management issues, including the economics and impact of changing FMD control strategies.

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The proposal he outlined (Appendix 9) would involve: • Implementing the type of regional technical support unit for FMD management that is promoted under the GfTADS Global Strategy, here applied to support Turkey as a member state to play a greater regional role; • Discontinuing the separate EuFMD/EC projects in the TransCaucasus countries and Iran; • maintaining the network of national contact points for FMD information to provide the monthly updates on vaccination programmes and FMD outbreaks; • Providing support to PCP related activity plans, with emphasis on the development of national strategies (to enter or retain Stage 2, and to move on zonal or national level into Stage 3) • Developing FMD control programme management skills, through the PeP-C courses and training in strategy development and the allied economics disciplines • Providing support to changing FMD management, for example in developing regionalisation in Turkey and neighbouring countries to manage the animal movement related risks. • Greater use of information systems and modelling to explore the effects of interventions or changing control measures (epidemiologic and economic modelling). • Cessation of inputs such as vaccine purchase, and greater emphasis on national management capacity building. In this regard, Turkey had already informally offered to supply national staff to support and if required, office space in Ankara.

The full costs of the approach have not been identified; but are expected to be a lot less than the inputs to this region in the recent 4 years programme. Further, once established as a co-ordination unit, there is potential scalability and cost sharing with additional GfTADS/FAO/World Bank or other projects that would pay for training places or international expertise e.g. for countries beyond EuFMD neighbourhood.

Discussion

The Chairman recommended the proposal be further developed; the focus on PCP progress, particularly FMD national management capacity, was an important trend in the Commission’s work with member countries and the neighbourhood. He considered membership of the Commission

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