Consultancy to assist in the development of a rinderpest eradication strategy in the West and East Nile ecosystems.

Throughout most of the life of the OLS Livestock Programme, conventional wisdom heldthat rinderpest eradication from southern Sudan was not possible without peace. It wasnot until 1998, that the extent of the impact of the OLS Livestock Programme and thetrue potential of community-based vaccination using heat-stable vaccine was widelyappreciated. As a result, the eradication of rinderpest from southern Sudan has not been astated objective until relatively recently.There is now an emerging consensus among non-governmental organizations,international agencies and the cattle owners of southern Sudan that the OLS LivestockProgramme has been highly successful in controlling rinderpest in the south Sudan. Thereis also a realisation that the time for institutionalised vaccination has now passed.Eradication, although not certain under the prevailing security conditions, is a realisticaspiration.The eradication phase of the programme should be implemented in a consultative mannerto insure that organisations and communities involved continue to share in the ownershipof the undertaking. Ownership of the eradication strategy by all partners is essential to itssuccess. Dialogue is required between the stakeholders to design and adopt a diseasesurveillance strategy and identify time-bound vaccination targets.Information from livestock owners and organisations on the ground suggest that thecessation of vaccination and intensification of surveillance in areas West of the Nile is anappropriate and prudent next step. The situation East of the Nile is less clear. Historically,this area has not benefited from the same levels of activity as the West and communitybased infrastructure is much less developed. This has primarily resulted from problems ofintermittent access and a consequent decision to focus resources West of the Nile as partof a phased programme.At the present time, the Sobat Basin is difficult to access for either vaccination orsurveillance. At the time of writing, OLS has indefinitely suspended all NGO activities inlarge areas of the Sobat Basin.Further to the south, the largest communities in the region, the Murle and Toposa, haveonly recently been accessed to any significant degree. A shortage of information is notequivalent to the absence of disease. Building disease surveillance capacity, andconducting participatory disease searches should be the main priorities. Time-boundvaccination should continue within the Murle and surrounding communities, when andwhere it can be properly applied. In this manner, at the end of the 2001-02 dry season,sufficient data will be in hand to support an informed decision regarding the cessation ofvaccination East of the Nile.