Current Situation
In developing future directions, the planning group agrees that:

• the Region has carried out a number of successful activities over the past five years including the development of :

o guidelines and training in risk analysis,
o harmonized standards for pharmaceuticals and biologics (through the Committee of Veterinary Medications for the Americas – CAMEVET)
o a regional web site and forms of electronic communication between member countries,
o training events, conferences and seminars dealing with significant animal health issues.

• Member countries continue to experience vastly different social, political, and economic conditions,

• such conditions directly impact Member countries’ ability to maintain their animal health infrastructure and to conduct effective animal health programs and policies, and

• the Regional Commission for the Americas plays a unique role in linking the OIE to individual member countries. The Regional Commission will encourage member countries to:

o participate in the development and adoption of standards,
o contribute expertise to the OIE’s Specialist Commissions and working groups,
o assist in obtaining support from development agencies for member countries to maintain an effective animal health infrastructure, and
o focus on animal health issues of particular importance to member countries in this hemisphere.

1)The group included Dr. Peter Fernandez, Dr. Angel Omar Flores, Dr. João Mauad Cavalléro, Dr. Brian Evans and Dr. Claudio Ternicier. Dr. Michael David, Dr. Robert Werge, Dr. Cristobal Zepeda, Dr. Mo Salman and Sra. Lupita Corominas provided support.

The mission of the OIE Regional Commission for the Americas has two main roles. The first is to assist Member countries to fully and actively participate in the OIE and to derive the benefits of such participation. The second is to assist in adapting OIE goals, strategies, programs and activities to the unique conditions and needs of the Americas. The role of the Office of the OIE Regional Representation for the Americas is to provide coordination, activities and continuity for these major tasks.

After reviewing regional activities to date, the planning group agrees that:

• the OIE region remains committed to the three principal strategic areas of its original strategic plan:

o a focus on strengthening the capacity of the national veterinary services,
o a strengthening of national animal health information systems,
o the harmonization of animal health standards.

• activities in each of these areas should be more clearly focused,

• several activities proposed in 1998 should be set aside,

• new themes proposed by the OIE, such as animal welfare and food safety and production, should be addressed only as the overall direction of the OIE on these topics becomes clearer.

The planning group also recognizes that:

• the OIE is a standard-setting and information organization, not a development agency per se,

• the OIE is in the process of strengthening relations with international agencies such as the World Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), etc.

• leaders in national governments and in the private agricultural sector need to hear and adopt a clear message on the economic and political value added by national veterinary services, and

• the Regional Commission for the Americas can assist in building support with national governments and producer groups for their National Veterinary Services and the economic and health benefits that are derived from them.

The primary objective of this strategic area is “to assist in the sustained development of flexible and strong national veterinary services.” The goal will be measured by the number of successful events of OIE Regional Commission assistance in the promotion of projects dealing with animal health infrastructure and/or in the provision of sustained public funding for the National Veterinary Services.

Proposed actions
The OIE has recently published, both in the Code and in a separate publication, models and methods of evaluation for national veterinary services. Using this information as a base, the planning group proposes to:

• Develop a policy paper on the value added by national veterinary services to the private and public sectors. This paper would address a private and public sector audience with the goal of providing:
o a common language for Member country representatives to discuss their critical economic and health roles;
o suggested projects to enhance surveillance components as the core for the national veterinary services; and
o a guide for discussion with development agencies on hemispheric, regional, and country specific development animal health projects.

• Conduct a series of workshops to build support for the ideas listed above and projects and sustained efforts at supporting national veterinary services in member countries. These workshops would:

o seek participation by private and public sectors as well as development agencies,
o be conducted on a sub regional areas: South America, Caribbean, Central America, etc.

• Request the Regional Representative with the assistance of Member countries to develop a two year action plan. This plan will seek to promote meetings and opportunities for dialogue with development agencies and national leaders in the public and private animal agricultural sectors. A key element in such talks is the role of standards under the SPS agreements for expanded economic and trade opportunities. Such meetings would aim at increasing producer and public support for both strengthening activities and sustained funding for the National Veterinary Services,

• Develop a summary report from these workshops and meetings for the next OIE Regional meeting. This report would emphasize strategies and tactics that have been successful at the national or regional level for building support of national animal health services.

• use of experts from a number of member countries,
• periodic meetings of the experts with a clear goal of developing guidelines for the hemisphere as a publishable document,
• ongoing connections with other Working Groups within the OIE,
• communications support, and
• numerous training events coordinated with other agricultural and development agencies.

Animal health surveillance, traceability, and epidemiology are as critical as risk analysis in providing the basic tools for ensuring animal health in the member countries. The Collaborating Center has held annual courses in animal health epidemiology (in Spanish) for the past several years for the pertinent specialists from countries of the Americas.

Proposed actions
The planning group recognizes the clear need for continuing to build capacity with the countries of the Americas in their information and reporting systems. As the 2003-2004 outbreak of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza has shown, this need as weel as a need for a regional response has become very important. Member countries’ confidence both in each country’s information systems and in each country’s ability and willingness to report their health status is crucial for building viable national and regional markets.

To develop specific actions, the planning group has asked the Collaborating Center to gather a small group of experts from Member countries to determine the future direction and focus of training, guidelines development and methodologies in support of animal health surveillance and reporting systems for the Americas. The planning group notes that the utilization of certain techniques, such as Geographical Information Systems and Animal Identification, may only be appropriate in a limited number of member countries. It could be, therefore, that future directions may develop several lines of capacity building oriented toward the different conditions under which member countries operate. It is suggested that this group of experts meet and develop such a plan within six months of the approval of this strategic plan.

However, the planning group recognizes the broader scope of harmonization which includes developing, adopting and implementing harmonized animal health standards, activities that are key to the work of the OIE and to the National Veterinary Services of its Member countries. The coordination of the use of standards throughout the Americas is a critical and ongoing task for the Office of Regional Representation and for the Regional Commission as a whole.

Proposed actions
The planning group recommends:

• Continued support for the committee that reviews veterinary pharmaceuticals and other biological agents,
o Review its operations to identify ways of improving its effectiveness,
• Increased participation by Member countries in the development of standards and to the review of proposed changes to the Code. This would involve:
o Personal and more frequent communication among the Member countries on key proposals for changes to the standards
o Enhance web site capability to handle Member country comments on proposed changes
• Increased use of experts from member countries on OIE Specialist Commissions, Ad hoc and Working Groups dealing with standards (and their underlying scientific justification), and
• Increased encouragement by the Regional Commission and Regional Representation to Member countries to adopt and respond to changes in the Code as they are adopted,

In its meeting, the planning group discussed several issues related to its institutional development. These included the need to:

• Provide basic orientation and information to new delegates to the OIE from Member countries. This is essential given the relatively high rate of turnover in delegates from the Americas. Such orientation should be institutionalized within the Office of the Regional Representation and should cover such elements as: OIE organization and structure, voting and other processes, workings of the General Session, etc.

• Expand its membership to all of the countries of the Region. This would lead to the inclusion of a number of countries in the Caribbean who are not yet members of the OIE.

• Provide a better opportunity for briefing the delegates from the Region on important issues on which they are asked to vote at the annual May meeting in Paris,

• Provide for a more equitable funding base for the Office of the Regional Representation and the activities proposed in this strategic plan,

• Clarify the organic rules for proposing and establishing regional working groups and commissions. In reference to the recent establishment of the regional Permanent Commission on TSEs in Animals, the planning group will:

o consult with the Director General and the Administrative Commission on the regulations for the establishment of regional commissions,
o examine the role of working groups, commissions, and other relevant organizational tools in dealing with significant animal health issues within the region,
o develop a set of norms to be followed for the establishment of such groups, and
o propose adoption of those norms at the March, 2004 regional meeting.

Given this experience, therefore, this second strategic plan for the Region proposes to focus on actions related most closely to the national veterinary services, to animal health surveillance and reporting systems, and to harmonization of standards. As the direction of the OIE in new areas becomes clearer, the Region may find it has a useful role in those areas. At this point, however, the Region should build on the successes and experience of its first five years, creating more specific measures for its actions and delivering clear benefits of participation to its Member countries.

• Include leaders from national governments and from key producer organizations in events, meetings and dialogues. The current outline of the new OIE Strategic Plan (2005 – 2010) mentions the horizontal strengthening of relations with international organizations and the international financial community. Such strengthening is essential. However the reality of many of the Member countries in the Region is that the importance of national veterinary services to leaders in their own national governments and in their own agricultural economies is not clearly understood. It is essential that the OIE Central Bureau assist the Region in outreach to these critical constituencies.

The prestige and recognition of the OIE has the ability to bring together the international financial community and the leaders of the Member countries’ agricultural sector and, increasingly, producer groups. Whenever possible, the OIE should support the efforts of the region to reinforce the critical role of the National Veterinary Services.

• Select themes for the General Session Meetings and the Regional Commission Meetings that reflect current topics of interest or concern to the Member countries. The current pattern is to choose a topic several years in advance, conduct a survey, and report on the survey results. This pattern results in surveys that are poorly answered and in topics that do not respond to Member countries’ interests and needs. An alternative approach would be to informally poll the membership on “hot topics” approximately six months prior to the meeting. An expert could then be assigned to present the issue based on his/her expertise or to develop a paper and presentation covering critical aspects of the topic. Such an approach would not only stand a much better chance of being timely and relevant but would also attract interest and dialogue among the Member countries.

Additional Notes for Planning Team Members
1. Elements for Policy Paper
During our discussion of the policy paper, we listed a number of points that could be included in such a document. The policy paper would consist of two parts. The first would be a discussion of key benefits derived from a viable National Veterinary Service. This would constitute “the message” to be communicated to key political and producer leaders. The second would be an Action Plan of events that would act as forums for translating that message into increased support for projects and/or public expenditures for National Veterinary Services.

Key points regarding “the message:”

National Veterinary Services:
Contributions to the public and private sectors
• Food security, including food safety
• Public health (e.g., Avian Influenza in Asia)
• Production costs (chance of lowering them through healthier animals)
• Expanded economic opportunities
• Trade opportunities
• Social values
• Confidence in regulatory systems
• Need for infrastructure to respond to threats/risks (this has an impact beyond the agricultural sector)
• National efforts need to be linked at the regional level

We need to site examples of positive accomplishments of NVSs.

In terms of actions or venues in which this message could be communicated and discussed…venues that would lead to increased support:

• Taking advantage of ongoing activities (meeting of three North American CVOs with Director General)
• Workshops (proposed within plan)
• Producer groups like ALA
• Collaboration with other regional groups
• National meetings

2. Alternative Matrix
We discussed alternatives to organizing the strategic plan in terms of the current OIE matrix of goals and objectives. A proposed framework is contained in the following matrix. The use of an alternative approach could be the topic of a future conversation.