Pan-African programme for the Control of Epizootics Final report regional technical assistance 2003 - 2006.

The regional technical assistant (RTA) for the West African Sahelian countries now covers a cluster of 10 countries : Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The Gambia was added to the list as from April 1st, 2004. Congo, DRC and Nigeria were added on November 1st, 2004. He was part of an initial team of three regional technical assistants that covered West and Central Africa, except for Chad, where a national TA had been appointed. The RTA covers an area encompassing 7 million km2, a human population of almost 240 million and an estimated 40 million heads of cattle and 130 million small ruminants. The primary development, geographic, demographic, economic and livestock related indicators are presented on the next page. Except for Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese speaking), The Gambia and Nigeria (English-speaking), all countries are (officially) French - speaking. The RTA is based at the PACE Regional Coordination Unit in Sotuba (Bamako) in Mali from where 438 days (chargeable nights) of country visits have been conducted (including in-country visits in Mali) between June 2003 and October 2006. The RTA's contract was initiated on May 30th, 2003 and ended on October 31st, 2006 (41 man-months) Over this 41-months period, the RTA has visited every of the ten countries at least twice, most often four or five times, with a maximum of eight (8). The executive summaries of the mission reports are presented at the end of this final report and illustrate the variability of progress made in these countries.