Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomosis Eradication Campaign PATTEC Enhancing Africa's Health and Prosperity.

Tsetse fly infestation is one of the most important constraints to ruraldevelopment in sub-Saharan Africa. By transmitting animal trypanosomosis,tsetse drastically reduces the numbers of livestock available. At the same time,trypanosomosis kills animals used for draught power, thus reducing the capacityof farmers to open up and work the land. Tsetse transmited sleeping sickness,affects a considerable number of people in Africa with the effect of reducinglabour availability as well as increasing the cost of health services. A lot of efforthas been expended in initiatives aimed at controlling tsetse over the last onehundred years. There has, however, been limited impact in the reduction of theproblem. Some of the areas where tsetse had become considerably reducedhave become re-infested over time. As a result, gains made are often lost sooneror later.African Heads of State and Government, having been under pressure from theircommunities to do something about tsetse, and realizing that piecemeal solutionswould not work, came to the conclusion that the tsetse problem had to be tackledon a continent-wide basis. The OAU Summit held in Lome, Togo, in July 2000,charged the Secretary General of OAU with the task of initiating a campaign toeradicate this menace from the continent of Africa. The Secretary General, inturn, commissioned a Task Force, comprising experts from 22 African countriesto formulate comprehensive strategies and a Plan of Action for theimplementation of the Decision by the Heads of State and Government.The Task Force was facilitated through the OAU/IBAR and held its planningworkshop in Nairobi, Kenya, from the 11th— 15thDecember 2000. The primaryobjective of the workshop was to gauge the size of the tsetse andtrypanosomosis problem, devise mechanisms for addressing it, and developplans for the elimination of the problem. The workshop was moderated by an external consultant and was designed andrun in a participatory manner. In preparation for the main workshop, a small subgroup of the Task Force met for two days, prior to the meeting of the Task Force,to develop the agenda, outline key issues, develop methods of work and prepareguidelines for the deliberations.During the workshop, the participants sought to answer certain fundamentalquestions, among which were the following:➢ Is the eradication of tsetse technically feasible and economically justifiable?➢ What are the required inputs and expected outcomes or consequences oftsetse eradication?➢ What strategies and approaches need to be adopted, what methods shouldbe employed and how should the tsetse eradication campaign be organisedfor effective execution?The workshop concluded that tsetse can and must be eradicated. The membersof the Task Force discussed the issues before them extensively and developeda common ground on which their recommendations on the strategies and Plan ofAction were based.I am confident that a combination of Africa's political will and the determinationand prescriptions of the continent's experts will provide the crucial circumstancesunder which effective action will be possible. The initiation of the Pan AfricanTsetse and Trypanosomosis Eradication Campaign, like the Pan AfricanRinderpest Eradication Campaign before it, demonstrates the viability oftranslating the spirit of political unity into the reality of collective action to solve acommon problem.