(b)        REPORT OF THE PROGRAMME AGAINST AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMIASIS (PAAT)

Mr. Chairman,
Hon. Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Rosebud Kurwijila,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

The Programme against African Trypanosomiasis (PAAT) is pleased to be participating once again at the 28th ISCTRC meeting holding in this ancient city of Addis Ababa, the political headquarters of Africa.

            For those who are not too familiar with the activities of PAAT, let me take a few moments to introduce PAAT.  PAAT is a consortium of mandated organizations within the UN family, namely FAO, IAEA and WHO, along with AU-IBAR and other international agencies and  institutions working in the field of tsetse and trypanosomiasis, together in a harmonious relationship to focus research and investments, to remove the constraint of tsetse and trypanosomiasis, especially in the rural population, improve human and animal welfare and livelihoods, promote sustainable agriculture and rural development, ensure food security and poverty alleviation and facilitate achievement of rural cash economy.  PAAT secretariat is hosted by FAO Rome.

            The harmonization of activities of PAAT and PATTEC, leading to the development of guidelines/criteria for the selection of priority areas for joint international activities against T & T was reported on at the last conference.  I am glad to report that the 6 countries, namely, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali and Uganda, currently benefiting from the ADB loans to fight T & T, under the PATTEC initiative, have benefited from the harmonization effort.  PAAT is delighted to have provided the baseline information used by these countries in their project proposals to obtain the loans.  PAAT will continue to provide the expertise available in PAAT to assist countries implementing T & T interventions and will continue to do so into the future.

            Members of PAAT secretariat have continued to assist member countries and indeed PATTEC either individually or severally in building their capacity through information, expert advice and logistic support, to fight the scourge of T & T.

            In the area of publications, PAAT has published several important technical and scientific papers in its technical series and these have been widely distributed and are available on PAAT website in PDF format for downloading.  The PAAT Information service is active and in fact took it upon itself to advertise this conference on the PAAT website.  Access to the website is easy and it is user-friendly.

            Only last week, the PAAT Advisory Group Coordinators met here in Addis Ababa and during its deliberations, recognized the urgent need to maintain the momentum of PATTEC programmes, especially in the first six countries receiving support from ADB. It therefore, urged PAAT mandated institutions as well as other stakeholders to assist the current activities following this renewed commitment, and contribute to the design of concrete support strategies by reviewing previous approaches by evaluating the programme needs in the areas of management, capacity building, standardization of operational techniques, baseline data management, land use planning, monitoring and evaluation at continental, regional and national levels.

            PAAT takes a lot of interest in the activities of ISCTRC and would like to see its structures, particularly the secretariat, strengthened to meet emerging demands.  Consequently, the PAAT-PAG has made recommendations to that effect to the Commissioner for Agriculture & Rural Development of the AU.

            Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud of the achievements of PAAT through its structures PATTEC-PMC and ISCTRC in its support to T & T interventions, and urge member states implementing T&T interventions to make use of the pool of expertise available within PAAT so that they can sustainably control and ultimately eliminate Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis.

Thank you.

Prof. A. A. Ilemobade
PAAT  CHAIRMAN