Terms of Reference (TORs)
Duty Station: IGAD member countries
Deadline for the Applications: 26th April 2016
Type of Contract: Individual
Contract post level: Short term
Starting date: May 03 (spread to 31, August 2016)
Duration: 60 days
Background
Animal genetic resources (AnGR) for food and agriculture are essential for Africa food security and contribution to the improvement of livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people. However, genetic improvement programmes in Africa, by governments, non-governmental organizations, bilateral aid agencies, and the private sector, have long favoured the use of exotic breeds for cross-breeding, upgrading, or replacement. These programmes are mostly implemented without clear policies, regulatory frameworks, strategic thinking and a long term view of how long-term indigenous animal genetics resources could be sustainably conserved.
The favoured use of exotic breeds has always been motivated by the objective of rapid productivity gains resulting in indiscriminate, uncoordinated or uncontrolled crossbreeding activities. Moreover, the trans-boundary nature of the spatial distribution of livestock breeds calls for harmonised legal and technical frameworks to enable the region exploit the genetic attributes of Africa’s livestock. Genetic resources are a global concern and of public interest that require regional governance mechanisms. The consultancy, therefore, aims at strengthening the capacity of member states (MS) and IGAD as a regional economic communities (REC) to sustainably utilize and conserve african animal genetic resources through institutionalising national and regional policy, legal and technical instruments that are crucial for judicious exploitation of animal genetics resources (AnGR) in the IGAD region.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region in the Horn of Africa is endowed with high livestock and livestock resources that form a critical part of the economies of the member states. This offers a unique potential for poverty alleviation, food security and trade, which highlights important contribution of livestock and creates a need to put into place necessary measures to achieve effective and efficient animal breeding services by strengthening the institutional environment for animal genetics resources, at the national and regional level.
To benefit from the EU-funded project on “strengthening the capacity of African countries to conservation and sustainable utilization of African animal genetic resources”, which supports the implementation of the Global Plan of Action (GPA) for animal genetic resources (AnGR) in Africa; and in line with AU-IBAR strategy of providing technical support to the livestock breeders association in the continent, ICPALD has recently received financial support to undertake a consultancy to develop a regional animal genetic resource model regional policy and legal frameworks for which these TORs serve to operationalize. To enhance the existing weak technical capacities at regional and national levels, the IGAD Centre for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD) plans to hire an experienced consultant or consultancy firm who will undertake the task of developing the model regional policy and legal frameworks for the animal genetic resources (AnGR).
This job posting is available on the IGAD website available here.
Prior to his appointment, he was the Director of Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies. He has previously also served as the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine for seven years (2003 – 2010).
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