Nicholas Kauta Oie Delegate for Uganda Entebbe, Uganda

The OIE has conducted the following PVS Pathway activities with Uganda: PVS Evaluation mission in 2007, Veterinary legislation identification mission in 2010. [...] The mission identified the existing inadequacies in both of them and proposed modifications prior to submission to Parliament. [...] The most important gaps identified in the existing and proposed legislation related to: the lack of a suitable definition for veterinary medicine; the lack of reference to veterinary para- professionals, their training, credentialing, responsibilities and supervision the focus on private practitioners with little mention of veterinarians in public service;The draft Veterinary and Para- [...] There are no supportive regulations to the existing law – the Veterinary Surgeons Act- which affects its implementation and enforcement. For these reasons, among others, Uganda’s current and proposed legislation did not meet the international standards for regulation of the veterinary professions as set forth by the OIE in Chapter 3.4 of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code. [...] The OIE Team recommended that the Veterinary and Para-veterinary Bill be thoroughly reviewed and revised to ensure that the concerns are fully addressed. The recommendations of the mission report helped Uganda VS to identify and prioritize areas for legislation reform. [...] Chapter 3.4 on veterinary legislation provided a valuable frame of reference for Uganda to identify shortfalls in its existing veterinary legislation. [...] The mission raised awareness of the importance of having legal experts involved with veterinarians in the preparation of veterinary legislation. [...] As such, a lot of time and effort was saved by not moving forward with a Bill that had little chance of passage. Uganda’s positive experience with the VLSP identification mission inspired the country to seek further assistance for legislation reform by requesting an OIE veterinary legislation Agreement A preparatory phase mission was conducted in October of 2011 The formal Agreement t [...] The Veterinary professions and para-professions bill is in the final stages of revision. [...] Restructured working groups are currently conducting literature review and identifying gaps in Uganda’s secondary veterinary legislation to identify needs for drafting new regulations The officer legally responsible for supporting legal reforms has been engaged and is providing guidance on the procedures and content. Uganda has partaken of a wide range of OIE activities ◦ PVS evaluation