Regional Stakeholders are Joining Forces to Take Coordinated Action to Eradicate Peste des Petits Ruminants by 2030
A high-level workshop was held in Abidjan, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire From 23 to 25 June 2025. The aim of the meeting was to consolidate commitment of Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) control key stakeholders of the Mano River Basin and beyond to collaborate towards the eradication of the disease. The workshop was organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the African Union Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), with funding support from the European Union. This occasion provided a significant opportunity to galvanise regional mechanisms and collaboration against transboundary animal diseases.
The workshop objectives focused on using the Pan-African initiative launched in 2022, to advance the PPR Global Eradication Program (GEP). The PMAT e-learning tool provided a valuable opportunity for countries to assess and strengthen their disease management systems and emphasized on the critical importance of cross-border collaboration and effective resource mobilization to address regional animal health challenges.
Delegates from Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, regional PPR coordinators for ECOWAS (West Africa), IGAD (Eastern Africa), ECCAS (Central Africa), and SADC (Southern Africa), and international partners including the World Bank, FAO, and WOAH, shared information on the current state in their countries, the challenges they were facing and related solutions.
Furthermore, participants unanimously agreed that all national plans should adopt the episystem approach, targeting disease hotspots and key livestock mobility corridors. The discussions covered the essential contributions of civil society organizations, the critical role of pastoralists communities, and the clear importance of collaborative surveillance and harmonized vaccination campaigns.
"The clock is ticking towards the 2030 deadline! "The workshop demonstrated that coordinated cross-border strategies, a mechanism of sharing epidemiological data, and pooled resources are doable paths to success," stated the Representative from the Ivorian Ministry of Animal and Fishery Resources. "We can see the will, and we urged all partners to mobilised resources and strategic direction for a coordinated response. Let us partner strongly and reflectively as we collectively mobilise our efforts to eradicated PPR from Sub-Saharan Africa."
"It is critical that we build on the strong base we have pointed out Dr. Huyam Salih, Director AU-IBAR. "The political will of Member States, the recent success of rinderpest eradication, and our collective experience of former regional programmes like PRAPS, are all together evidence of credibility to build momentum for the collective effort that we all want to see realised."
During the three days, participants shared their experiences, discussed the challenges encountered, and exchanged on the best practices adopted to eradicate PPR in their respective countries. The workshop ended with the formulation of the following recommendation to strengthen regional coordination and accelerate progress toward disease eradication:
• To Member States: To capitalise on this joint plan from the workshop to close out respective national PPR action plans, to involve your local stakeholders and to prepare for the next High Level Ministerial Summit
• To the Regional Economic Communities: To ensure that national programmes should synergize together and that people should work more together across National borders.
• To Donors and Technical Partners: To provide more funding and technical support, especially for countries that are in Stage 1 or 2 of the PPR pathway, to help accelerating their progressive improvement.
• To Civil Society and Pastoralist groups:To keep on involving the communities so that people have access to the mediation they need, and that behaviour changes can continue to be made.
In conclusion, this event reaffirmed the shared aspiration of African countries and partners to eradicate PPR by 2030 and to establish resilient animal health systems capable of safeguarding livelihoods and food security throughout the continent.
Let us join forces to eradicate PPR by 2030; support livelihoods, enhancing food security, and instil regional integration into animal health.