Service Contract financed under the 8th European Development Fund - Project Nr 8ACPTPS 32.

The report covers the period July to December 2003. During this period, two changes were made in the assignment of TAs to country/region of assignment, notably in Tanzania and Cameroon. In Tanzania, Dr Philippe Leppere took over from Dr Wolfgang Boehle in November 2003, whereas Dr. Hanns-Achim Krebs took over from Dr. John Woodford as TA in the Anglophone West/Central Africa region. The mandate and/or role (s) of the TAs has so far remained unchanged except in Tchad which has also seen changes in technical structure. Since October 31st2003, the expert plays the role of PACE coordinator, managing the project in close collaboration with a National Counterpart (Homologue Veterinaire Tchadien) and under the auspices of the Directorate for Veterinary Services. He is therefore responsible for PACE activities as foreseen by the audit missions held in April and July 2003. Over the last six months, both national and regional TAs went on various missions/visits in their areas of jurisdiction. Regular visits to the various countries were especially important in regional programmes for purposes of activity monitoring and evaluation besides acting as boosters and motivators. Consequently, the TA in charge of West African Coastal Countries and based in Mali visited each of the seven countries under his mandate at least once. Togo and Benin have been already visited twice. The TA in charge of six West African Sahelian Francophone countries has over the last six months visited each country at least once. Two countries should have initiated a new WP on 01 November 2003. Mali did but Senegal's WP approval was delayed until January 31st2004 in order to allow the full de-commitment of unused funds. During the reporting period the TAs participated in diverse international meetings/workshops. All the TAs attended the 8thAdvisory Committee Meeting in Bamako (November 4 — 6th, 2003), followed by the workshop on the harmonisation of epidemiology and control strategies, jointly organised by the PEU and GTZ-IS/SATEC (November 7 — 8th, 2003). The main problems experienced during the reporting period are varied. The problem of insecurity was particularly common in Northern Uganda, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic. In Kenya the main problems experienced were related to delayed 2ndyear funding and conflicting interpretation of EDF rules (also in Tanzania and Ethiopia), resulting in unpaid year 2 commitments; postponement of applied epidemiology training for field staff; Rinderpest outbreak and lack of project transport. The main setback in Ethiopia and Tanzania was delayed procurement of equipment. In Ethiopia the tenders for cars, computers and car spare parts failed due to non-competitiveness and non-conformity with the EC rules of the analysis of the offers. It was necessary to change the tender documents in conformity with the EDF regulations. Activities planned for the next period are varied. Disease surveillance activities will continue with the aim of achieving a rinderpest free status. The TAs plan to assist closing current WP/CE and prepare new ones or necessary addenda for the remainder of the phase, i.e. till October 31, 2004. Plans include attendance of various meetings/workshops relating to aspects of disease control and management issues as build-up to the next Annual PACE Conference in Gabon ( June 2004).