Background

The PACE programme is the successor of the earlier Joint Programme No. 15 (JP15) (1962-1976) and the Pan African Rinderpest Campaign (PARC, 1986-1998) projects aimed at eradicating rinderpest from Africa. The evaluation of PARC undertaken in 1996 recommended a continuation of the programme and subsequently, various preparatory and formulation missions were undertaken during 1997 and 1998.

This culminated in the formulation of PACE as documented in a Final Report dated October 1998. The main objective of the Programme is to consolidate the achievements of rinderpest eradication and take further steps and control major epizootic diseases. The ultimate goal is to contribute to poverty alleviation of the African livestock producers. The PACE Financing Agreement (FA) was signed on 5/7/1999 by the European Union (EU) and on 30/8/1999 by the Organization of African Unity, Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (OAU-IBAR) respectively. Article 3 of this agreement defined: the starting date of PACE as 31st of October 1999 with completion date fixed for the 31st of October 2004; and the overall budget of € 72 million.

Considering the importance of PACE outputs, various external missions, the mid-term review (held at the end of 2002), the 7th,8th and 9th Advisory Committee Meeting, the EU project monitoring mission, have recommended an extension of the Programme for a period of two years starting at the end of October 2004.

• The African Union, through the Commission for Rural Economy and Agriculture had requested formally the extension and the Deputy Chief Authorising officer of the EDF has agreed to the proposals. Hence, the original financing Agreement No 6125/REG was amended as follows:
  Provision for an additional project number 9 ACP RPR 032 increasing the initial budget to EUR 5.000.000;
• Commitment is fixed at Euro 77. 000.000 from 7th, 8th,and 9th EDF resources;
• Completion of this agreement is set to end on 28, February 2007 at the latest.
  The spirit of the PACE programme is in compliance with the orientations of the new cooperation agreements between Europe and the ACP Countries (Cotonou Agreements)

The Programme is in harmony with up to date animal health and economic interests in terms of globalisation and cater for capacity building and the development of Veterinary Services and food hygiene services in Africa so as, to ensure their compliance with international standards as defined by the World Animal Health Organization, the OIE.

The Community-based Animal Health and Participatory Epidemiology (CAPE) project – funded by DFID was an integral part of PACE. The MoU was signed in December 2000 between DFID and OAU-IBAR for a period of 4 years, till October 2004. The project was funded to the tune of £ 5.4 million (appr. € 8 million). The Italian Government and the Swiss Cooperation contributed to the funding of PACE Somalia programme. Furthermore, the French Cooperation avails full or part time experts at national level in CAR, Nigeria, Mauritania, Cameroon and Chad.