9th Advisory Committee Meeting of the PACE Programme

The AC notes with concern that the recommendation of the 7th ACM for a consultant to be appointed to review the recommendations of the Mid-Term Review (MTR) has not been followed. These delays might result in an irrational extension of the Financing Agreement, with inherent risks on quality issues. The current main justifications for the extension of the PACE programme (PP) are to allow all PACE countries to fulfil the agreed objectives during 5 years of effective implementation in the course of which rinderpest eradication will remain an over-riding imperative. Every attempt should therefore be made in countries still facing rinderpest outbreaks or persistent viral activity due to lineage II rinderpest virus to divert adequate resources towards the final eradication of the disease. External assistance is required to assist IBAR and the EC in designing the extension but additional resources being limited, use will have to be made of contingency funding by certain countries. The activities of the regional coordination will have to be adjusted in line with the limited available resources and possible extra funds from other donors and also taking into account the results of the exercise to re-structure IBAR. In view of the limited time left for the completion of the (PP), the AC recommends that AU/IBAR liaise with the Donor to appoint without any further delay, a technical consultant to examine the technical aspects of the PP and to submit a final report before the end of the year. A U/IBAR should also, in consultation with the Donor appoint another consultant as soon as possible to review the economic and financial aspects of the PP. An important term of reference of the consultants will be to design a possible extension of the PP including the re-allocation of resources based on country performance and priority activities in relation to animal disease surveillance and control. The AC also recommends that in accordance with Article 3.5.3 of the Special Conditions of the Financing Agreement, AU should be requested to confirm that it will maintain the essential personnel for the epidemiology part of animal health (4 officials) after October 2004 in order to ensure the future sustainability of IBAR. In addition to maintaining essential staff the appointment of a permanent Director of IBAR should be a prerequisite for an extension of the PACE Programme. Due to the difficulties for identifying an available team of consultants, the consultation on extension of PACE started late November 2003. PCU managed to send the 2 experts at least for a few days in Ethiopia where they had contacts with AU-HQ and in Mali where they met the regional coordination body. The experts presented an aide-memoire on 18'1' of December 2003 during a seminar held within PACE-IBAR and regional stakeholders