COMESA will lead in the identification of comprehensive data and information for the meat and live animal value chain for southern and Horn of Africa required for inclusion in the design of the third Animal Resource Information System (ARIS 3).

This was part of the outcomes of a consultative workshop organized by AU- IBAR in Nairobi, Kenya, 03 – 07 February 2020, to identify priority data and information to be included in ARIS 3 to better handle information of priority regional livestock value chains.

Participants represented ministries responsible for livestock development from all 54 Member States of Africa and representatives from all Regional Economic Communities (RECs) including COMESA. Dr. Yoseph Mamo, Senior Livestock Officer, represented COMESA Secretariat. “We agreed that AU-IBAR finalize the design of ARIS 3 and give appropriate trainings on the use of the application and that RECs statistical Units to be given training on ARIS 3 and be linked to Member States responsible unit to provide the required data,” Dr Mamo said.

Each region chaired by the representative of the regional economic community identified comprehensive data and information required to be included in the design of ARIS 3. The Southern Region and the Horn of Africa were assigned to assess and identify data and information for meat and live animals, Northern and East Africa COMESA to Lead Regional Meat and Live Animal Value Chain to provide on Dairy products whereas Central and West Africa will handle poultry and eggs value chain.

It was also agreed that Development Partners will support the initiatives to promote livestock value chains in Africa for better economic integration. The objectives of the Nairobi workshop were to conduct a comprehensive assessment of data and information needs by various stakeholders across the prioritized livestock value chains on regional basis (poultry, dairy, meat, and live animal) and identify critical data content for selected lvc to help develop a comprehensive continental data collection framework.

Participants were drawn from the Member States, Regional Economic Communities, Experts, Development Partners and Commodity Producer Associations. They agreed on the benefits from implementing the ARIS 3 and Livestock Development Strategy for Africa (LiDESA). The initiative is part of the AU-IBAR activities for the sustainable development of livestock for livelihoods in Africa Live2Africa to transform priority regional livestock value chains through strengthening systematic capacity building across member States. This is part of implementation and coordination of ARIS for the sustainable development of Animal Resources.

Implementation of the ARIS 3 is a follow up to the stakeholder workshop held in Cairo, Egypt in August last year, where key strategic actions and priority interventions were proposed. One of the crosscutting intervention was establishment of livestock value chain based information management system.