UAE Team to Asess Health of Livestock

UAE TEAM TO ASSESS HEALTH SITUATION OF SOMALI LIVESTOCK

27 February 2001 - (UNDP Information Office - Nairobi)

A four-man team of veterinarians and animal health doctors from the Technical Committee of the United Arab Emirates, General Secretariat of Municipalities, started their field visit to Somalia today. On this third leg of their tour to Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, they will be assessing the veterinary and health situation of animals and processed meat in Hargeysa, Bossasso and Mogadishu, to ascertain that Somali livestock are free of Rift Valley Fever.

In September 2000, the Gulf States imposed a ban on the import of livestock from the Horn of Africa. Since then serious concerns have developed for the food security and livelihood of poor households across northern and central Somalia. Records indicate that 70% of Somalia’s GDP depends on livestock production and trade. Concerns are most grave for urban, displaced and pastoralists in the Hawd and Addun areas, as the long, dry Jilaal season begins.

The livestock mission is one part of a UNDP approved project to restart the dialogue and find out what technically has to be done to facilitate reopening this market

Andrea Tamagnini, Senior Deputy Residence Representative, UNDP Somalia, says, “We are prepared to intervene at the highest level concerning this issue. The livestock mission is one part of a UNDP approved project to restart the dialogue and find out what technically has to be done to facilitate reopening this market.” UNDP are financing the mission. FAO livestock team/FSAU and UNCTAD are providing guidance and technical support.

UN agencies, in conjunction with IGAD partners and donors, are already investing in short, medium and long-term responses. These include public works projects to stimulate the local economy, marketing and economic diversification projects to reduce economic vulnerability, and initiatives to monitor and certify the health standards of livestock.

While these initiatives will continue regardless of the status of the ban, only the resumption of trade will enable Somalia’s urgent recovery to take place. The mission is hopefully an opportunity to move in the direction to lifting the ban of Somali livestock export.

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UAE Team To Assess Health Of Livestock

February 27, 2001
Posted to the web February 27, 2001

A four-man team of veterinarians and animal health doctors from the United Arab Emirates arrived in Somalia on Tuesday to assess the health of livestock, UNDP's Somalia office reported. This is the third leg of the team's tour of Sudan , Ethiopia, and Somalia, according to a UNDP news release. The objective of the team's visit is to look at the health situation of animals and the condition of processed meat in Somalia, and to ascertain whether Somali livestock are free from Rift Valley Fever.

The team will visit Hargeisa, in the self-declared independent state of Somaliland, northwest Somalia, Bosaso, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia, and Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

"We are prepared to intervene at the highest level concerning this issue", the release quotes UNDP Senior Deputy Resident Representative, Andrea Tamagnini as saying. According to Tamagnini, the livestock mission is one part of UNDP's efforts to "find out what technically has to be done to facilitate the reopening of this market".

The Arab Gulf States imposed a ban on imports of livestock from Horn of Africa countries in September 2000, following an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Some 70 percent of Somalia's GDP depends on livestock production and trade. Since the ban "serious concerns have developed for the food security and livelihood of poor households in northern and central Somalia," said the UNDP release.

Nairobi, 27 February, 2001