25 October 2010, 5th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Over 300 delegates at the 5th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture (AACAA) accepted an invitation to ‘meet GALVmed’ at a special evening event held on the first day of the conference.
The event was delivered in the style of a television discussion programme, hosted by international broadcast journalist Nik Wood.
Nik interviewed a panel consisting of the President of the AACAA, Ed Rege, GALVmed’s Senior Director, Policy and External Affairs, Hameed Nuru, and GALVmed board member and Director of the African Union-Pan African Veterinary Vaccine Center (PANVAC), Karim Tounkara.
The event provided an excellent opportunity for GALVmed to explain its approach and share its initial focus and plans with a large audience of mostly African livestock specialists. As Dr Nuru explained to them:
“Our motto, our strapline, our vision is all the same thing – protecting livestock, improving human life.
GALVmed doesn’t produce or market vaccines…we facilitate, that is our niche – bringing the relevant people together, recognising their strengths and their weaknesses.
It’s not just about having the vaccine, drug or diagnostic, it’s getting it down the chain to the animals – that is what is really critical …bringing private companies into this, giving them the incentives so it can be come sustainable.”
Feedback immediately after the event indicated that the AACAA organisers and participants alike appreciated the innovative format used for the ‘meet GALVmed’ event.
Earlier, during the opening session, the AACAA President thanked GALVmed for their generous sponsorship of the conference.
The 5th AACAA, held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, took as its theme Commercialisation of Livestock Agriculture in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities. 140 papers on a broad range of livestock issues were scheduled to be presented over the 3-day conference.
GALVmed’s Hameed Nuru chaired a session on Emerging animal health issues: implications for African livestock keepers and priority interventions in a globalizing world.
Panellists at the ‘Meet GALVmed’ event: Ed Rege, Hameed Nuru and Karim Tounkara
A capacity crowd of AACAA delegates accepted the invitation to ‘Meet GALVmed’ and the event was also covered by Ethiopian television
‘Meet GALVmed’ host, international broadcast journalist Nik Wood, poses a question to the panellists