- Institutional aspects: the description of the process on the (i) revision of the Operation Guidelines and (ii) secretariat needs assessment were presented by H. Bretaudeau, after a consultative process among the EC members. Main conclusions will be presented during the EC9; based on these conclusions, funding to cover the needs of the ALive Secretariat will be sought. In the meantime, the antenna/focal point of the Secretariat in IBAR should be operational as soon as possible to allow a smooth transfer of the EC Presidency from OIE to IBAR.

- Technical aspects / implementation of the first Three-year Action Plan (AHI activities excluded) [PAT1; 2004-2007] : the PAT1 activities progress report was presented in details :

           - the portfolio review has been launched March 11, 2007; all members (donors and African institutions) are asked to provide their data regarding their livestock portfolio; in the meantime, a database with an internet interface accessible via the ALive website, is being implemented; final delivery is expected June 15;

           - the policy notes on  food safety and trade & subsidies are at their early stage (redaction of draft 1 by a newly recruited firm Phylum); the policy note on the animal health delivery is completed and only needs final editing (to be available by the end of June); the policy notes on drought management, pastoral mobility and smallholders dairy development are at their final stage (regional workshop to be held); all the policy notes will be discussed in a final technical workshop (hereafter referred as ‘ALive Technical Workshop’) to be held in Africa week of September 17, 2007 in Addis Ababa;

           - the research proposals on animal health (trade ; HPAI) have been posted on the ALive website (December-January) for their review by the EC members; comments have been provided by only 4 members, which indicates that the ALive EC may not be the appropriate arena to review such technical proposals (an ad'hoc structure could be created for this task) and that ALive should work more up-stream, at the identification of priority research thematics (without developing them: "branding/labelisation"); However, it was asked the FARA to revise his proposals on the basis on the comments provided before and during EC8 as well as those supposed to be collected (in particular from FAO on PPCB) and make a final proposal during the EC9;

           - Tools to help implement the recommendations provided in the Policy notes : 2 tool-kits on drought management and smallholders dairy development are being developed, respectively by FAO and DAAS/ALive Secretariat; they will also be presented and discussed during the ALive Technical Workshop;

           - the livestock PRSP Guide is a flagship activities of ALive, which will allow the appropriate insertion of the livestock section in the PRSP[1] and PRSB[2]; the general architecture of the Guide has been determined (PPLPI) and the 6 modules composing the Guide are currently being developed by PPLPI, CIRAD/TCIW and the ALive Secretariat; a first draft of the Guide will be presented during the ALive Technical Workshop;

           - the ALive website is now operational since October 2006, however, the consultations of the private section are sub-optimal and EC members are encouraged to make more use of this communication tool;

All activities of the PAT1 are expected to be implemented by September, discussed during the ALive Technical Workshop, and validated during the EC10.

- Technical aspects / implementation of the AHI action plan (see annex of the EC7 Resolution):

           - regarding national activities (lines 1, 2 and 3 of the financial matrix): conditions for countries to request a Rapid Assessment mission were discussed, on the basis of the draft Guidelines for disbursement of funds. The Rapid Assessment missions (with experts from OIE, FAO, WHO, IBAR, communication) will support the national governments to initiate, update or improve their Integrated National Action Plan. Talking about VS evaluation, the OIE/PVS tool will be the reference. Criteria for the prioritization of support to countries have been discussed and will be adopted through an electronic consultation (see EC8 Resolution); the EC members will be consulted and asked to approve, on a no objection basis, a priority list to access the RA missions, every 6 requests made to the ALive Secretariat. A sub-regional balance will be taken into account. To initiate the process, the first two countries requesting assistance will be supported on a first-come first-serve basis. A note to be circulated via the local representations of the technical agencies and via the OIE delegates will be produced to guide the sub-Saharan Africa countries to submit request for RA. Two co-terminus positions (animal heath and human health specialists) have been opened to reinforce the ALive Secretariat.

                - regarding regional activities (lines 4, 5 and 6 of the financial matrix): WAEMU, DG Dev and FAO have accepted to be the “champions” respectively for the Communication, Research and Networks (labs, epidemiosurveillance, and socio-economic) components. The Champions have been asked to work on a set of concrete proposals to be presented during the EC9. As part of the communication component, the communication tool-kit developed by the EISMV (jointly with several ALive partners) will be financed and available on the ALive website.

- Knowledge sharing :

           - WAEMU (Dr DARE) made a presentation on the harmonization of the registration and control of veterinary drugs within the WAEMU sub-region, and the possible replication of such an approach in the other sub-regions. Upstream activities to this approach (= diagnostic and feasibility studies; labs audits) could constitute eligible activities to the PAT2 (see ppt). The lack of control of veterinary drugs is a major issue in Africa (fraudulent products that create an animal health and a public health concern) and, according to the Recommendations of the Asmara Conference (17^th OIE Regional Commission for Africa), an international conference on the matter will be organized by OIE with the support of ALive, preferably at the end of the year.

           - OIE made a presentation on the use of the PVS tool, which is now the reference to conduct auto-evaluation of the VS; in the coming years, more than 100 evaluations will be made worldwide (60 are already funded);

           - the Regional Centers for Animal Health (RCAHs) constitute important tri-partite (OIE, FAO and IBAR) structures to cope with animal health issues, in particular currently with AHI (major role to play in the support to the implementation of the INAPs ; notably some funds from the ALive MDTF will be allocated to finance experts to support the existing RCAHs staff). While Bamako is already fully functional, Gaborone and Tunis are just being put in place. ECOWAS has expressed his interest for a possible institutional anchorage of the Centers, particularly for Bamako Centre.

           - Discussions on the livestock-environment interactions were raised, following the recent publication of the FAO report ‘’livestock long shadow’’; regardless of the quality of the content which was not questioned, it is unfortunate that the messages delivered to the non-experts could possibly be detrimental to the overall livestock sector. However, lessons learnt for Africa are important and IBAR has decided to organize an African conference on the matter. ALive members are invited to participate in this conference (date to be determined).

- Elaboration of the next Three-year Action Plan (PAT2 ; 2007-2010]: the discussions for the elaboration of the PAT2 were launched; a general methodology was presented by the ALive Secretariat proposing (i) the transfer from PAT1 to PAT2 of activities that could not be implemented (mainly for chronogram reasons; example of the training modules for the implementation of the ALive policy notes); (ii) the addition of news activities within the current framework of intervention; and (iii) the definition of a new framework of interventions (new pathways of development such as environment, biodiversity and veterinary public heath to be considered). The EC members will be asked to propose new activities before the EC9 according to a process and format that will be provided by the ALive Secretariat.  The PAT2 will be endorsed during the AG3 – after a broad consultative process including if possible additional donors - , and on the basis of the endorsed Plan, fund raising will be made (pledging meeting before the end of this year).

It is important that the NEPAD/AU be associated at the early stage of the design of the PAT2 to align the PAT2 and the CAADP.

Finally, it is proposed that an independent evaluation of the PAT1 be made after its term and that this evaluation constitute one activity of the PAT2.

- Field visit = a field visit was organized to discover structures of regional interest that could be replicated in other sub-regions. The visit took place at the regional Quarantine Center of Damerjog, which concentrates small and large ruminants from Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan before their export to the Arabian peninsula.

- IGAD’s presentation on IGAD's portfolio (ppt soon available).

- Conclusions of the GF-TADs meeting : see special report on (i) epidemiological situation of AHI, in particular in Nigeria and Egypt; (ii) epidemiological situation of RVF;  (iii) PAAT and PATTEC) and (iv) clarification of links between ALive and GF-TADs; all recommendations were adopted by the ALive EC.