Countries reaffirm commitment to PPR eradication

Countries renewed their commitment to globally eradicate Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) by 2030 at the global conference: Partnering and investing for a PPR-free world, organised by OIE and FAO and hosted by the European Commission in Brussels, 7 September 2018.

At the same time, countries urged resource partners and the development community to contribute in bridging the PPR Global Eradication Programme’s US$340 million funding gap.

In a Ministerial Declaration, participants stressed that PPR “directly threatens the livelihoods of the poorest people of our countries with significant losses in our local economies,” highlighting that the disease causes more than US$2.1 billion in economic losses per year.

The conference noted that PPR control and eradication starts with commitment and investment at national level. However, support is also needed from resource partners in building the capacity of national, regional and sub-regional institutions, and bringing about a coordinated, sustained and harmonized approach, necessary for the eradication of the disease.

It noted that controlling and eventually eradicating PPR means fighting rural poverty, ensuring food security and nutrition, and strengthening resilience and national economies and is also in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Nearly 270 participants, among them ministers from over 45 PPR-infected and at-risk countries as well as high-level representatives from resource partners, international, regional, civil-society and non-governmental organizations attended the conference. It was preceded by a Stakeholders Forum, which provided the opportunity to exchange views and to collect first-hand testimonies on the serious impact of PPR.

The Global Strategy for the Control and Eradication of PPR was initially adopted at a 2015 conference in Abidjan jointly organized by FAO and the OIE. Through a 2017-2021 PPR Global Eradication Programme, countries formulated National Strategic Plans, which detail the steps for assessing, controlling, and eradicating the PPR virus, maintaining PPR virus freedom, as well as the financial resources required and committed by national authorities to implement these plans.

[SOURCE: OIE]