Warm greetings and best wishes for a successful and prosperous 2019! While the New Year is still young, I would like to share with you some of the key moments for GALVmed in 2018 and update you on our plans for 2019.
2018 was a year rich in events at GALVmed. It marked the start of implementation of the new 5-year programme, Veterinary Innovations Transforming Animal Health and Livelihoods (VITAL). While the previous programs focussed essentially on filling gaps of much needed Veterinary Medicines and Tools for smallholder livestock farmers in Africa and South Asia, VITAL puts more emphasis on building functional business models allowing delivery of quality animal health products and services to smallholders.
2018 also marked our 10 year anniversary since GALVmed began operations. This was an important milestone and I would like to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of our many public and private sector partners, our funders, research institutes, charities, the individual farmers and vaccinators as well our staff and experts, on whom we rely for our work and who brought us to where we are today. The first 10 years of GALVmed’s existence were rich in learning and confirmed GALVmed’s unique position as an intermediary between the animal health industry and the smallholder livestock farming sector. Read about our achievements and lessons learned over the last 10 years here.
And finally, in November 2018, Peter Jeffries retired after serving close to 6 years as GALVmed’s Chief Executive. Peter has marked GALVmed like few others through his consecutive roles as Founding Member Representative, Trustee and CEO. I feel deeply honoured to be taking over the CEO role from Peter and appreciate the opportunity of leading the organisation into its next phase.
Looking ahead to 2019, we will move into full implementation of all R&D, commercial development and enabling projects, and, at the same time, embark on a new GALVmed strategic exercise together with other key stakeholders.
Overall, we plan to take an even more holistic view on how to support building a functioning market environment for animal health inputs that serve smallholder livestock farmers. Our long-term vision is that smallholder livestock farmers contribute significantly to agricultural transformation at country level and contribute visibly to the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Looking forward to our continued journey together – best wishes
Carolin Schumacher
Chief Executive