Month: January 2024

New component: the Consultation Facility

Posted on by Mascha Kaddori

The experience of 2.5 years since its launch shows that the Alliance has been successful in facilitating exchanges between scientists, NGOs and representatives of international and national organisations. However, there is a particular need to strengthen national capacities and frameworks to sustainably reduce health risks from wildlife trade.    The past period has shown the challenges of getting ministries or other government bodies to join the Alliance – without a targeted and specific offer of support. 

This is where the Consultation Facility comes in: 

The goal of the Consultation Facility is to provide context-specific, multidisciplinary advice from Alliance experts to governments/governmental institutions in countries at high risk of novel diseases of zoonotic origin to prevent spill-over infections. The focus is on proactive, primary prevention measures. 

Throughout the contact and trade chain, the expertise of more than 180 member organisations and individual experts in the Alliance is used to form multidisciplinary teams to provide country-specific advice on primary prevention measures and interventions at the animal-human interface.  The Facility’s unique selling point is that it specialises in medium-term, preventive and context-specific government advisory services with concrete results in the context of health risks associated with wildlife trade and consumption. The Facility can act as an accelerator for further activities and engagement of governments, national experts and stakeholders involved in the wildlife-human interface within identified ‘hotspot’ regions or contexts. 

Here are some key facts: 

  • The total amount available for missions is €1.8 million 
  • Missions are planned for 2024 

There are several ways to get involved: 

  • Become a member of the temporary Technical Advisory Group to help us identify possible governments and connecting them to our services 
  • As a member organization, you carry out the consultation missions 
  • As an expert, you will be able to apply for available (time-limited) job profiles of the respective advisory missions 
  • Feel free to contact us individually if you have any ideas about which countries might be suitable for the services offered by the Consultation Facility. 

Possible activities 

  1. Surveillance (pathogen and disease monitoring) in wildlife populations and products (e.g. wild meat including seasonal patterns) 
  1. Knowledge and understanding of critical control points for risk reduction and appropriate, realistic intervention along the wildlife and wildlife product supply chain 
  1. Data linkage and content exchange between relevant ministries and government agencies, establishment of relevant processes and (national/international) partnerships 
  1. Coordination of targeted risk reduction measures and their monitoring 
  1. Tailor-made support for changes in processes and structures for risk reduction, including topics of budget and mandate allocation within relevant (governmental) structures 
  1. Information on risks and behavioural prevention measures in dealing with wildlife and wildlife consumption (hygiene / bio-security / bio-safety/ occupational safety / food safety etc.) 

The roles in detail 
 
Technical Advisory Group (TAG) 

  • A group of 5 Alliance members will support the the Secretariat in a TAG to identify potential countries and appropriate member organisations for the Facility. 
  • Every member of the Alliance can apply for the position, the Secretariat will decide based on qualification (in a separate ToR) and regional/national expertise. The seats represent a region: 
  1. Asia 
  1. South East Asia 
  1. 2x Africa (south + east/ north + west) 
  1. South/Central America 
  • Members of the TAG are not allowed to propose + vote their own organisations 
  • A short term contract (max. 4 months; 1 day/month) will be concluded with each member of the TAG

Executing organisation

  • Identified jointly by the GP and the TAG and commissioned by the GP  
  • Requirements: proven expertise in respective region/field of action, demonstrated capacity to perform the contract 
  • Separate MoU to clarify the relationship with GP, Alliance Experts and organisation 

Head of Mission 

  • After the identification of potential countries and a suitable organisation, an appraisal mission will be conducted per country by a designated and separately commissioned Head of Mission and supported by GP staff 
  • This person will be responsible for the mission design and formulation job profiles and the coordination of the overall mission  

Alliance Experts

  • Based on the mission design and required profile, the required team composition will be contracted from the Alliance membership 
  • Consultancy opportunities will be shared with all Alliance members for each mission. 
  • The contract of employment is concluded with the executive organisation. 
  • The remuneration is based on the GIZ salary scale. 

Next steps: 

  • If you would like to apply for the TAG to support us identify possible governments and executing organisations, reach out to us until January 31st 
  • Feel free to also contact us individually if you have ideas about which countries might be suitable for the services offered by the Consultation Facility. 
  • We will update our members on a regular basis about the developments and open positions within the Consultation Facility. 
Facility-launchDownload

Voices from the Ground: The Application of a One Health Approach to Raise Wildlife Protection Awareness (OHAWE) in Indonesia

Posted on by Ann-Kristin Konzak

The first ‘Voices from the Ground’ Event of 2024 introduced ‘The Application of a One Health Approach to Raise Wildlife Protection Awareness (OHAWE) in Indonesia’ presented by Prof. Dr. dr. Sri Budayanti and Semara Yanti. The event showcased the Alliance-funded project implemented by the One Health Collaborating Centre (OHCC) of the Udayana University Indonesia which produced five storytelling books for children’s education on the health risks and threats of wildlife trade and the interaction between humans and wildlife. Confronted with a lack of public knowledge and awareness regarding these risks, the Udayana team is working on educating the communities’ children around Indonesia. The work of the project is embedded in local values and customs, visible through the creation of the five storybooks in five different native languages corresponding to five Indonesian regions: Bali, East Java, Yogyakarta, Aceh, and Papua. Each region hosted a storytelling event for the launch of the storybook in their native language.

Prof. Dr. dr. Sri Budayanti, who is the Head of the Udayana OHCC and a clinical microbiologist by training, presented on the general concept of the project. Contextualising the issue of health risks in wildlife trade in Indonesia, as around 25,672 wildlife specimens have been exported throughout 2016 and 2021 from Indonesia, excluding numbers of the illegal trade. Hence, the establishment of sufficient knowledge and awareness concerning the risks is crucial to ensure safe trading. Early-age education situated in cultural sensitivity, as there are over 700 living native languages existing throughout the more than 17,000 islands of Indonesia, is a required tool to increase public awareness. The messaging through art and native languages is meant to capture children’s attention better than other forms of communication. At the same time, children act as influential communicators on the issue to their parents. To effectively implement the concept, the process of the storybook creation was accompanied by five different stakeholders: Academics and professionals, business, the community, the Government, and the media.

Program Manager Semara Yanti shared further insights on the technical part of the process. Each of the storybooks feature different main characters that correspond to the local reality of the region. The storybook for the region of Yogyakarta is based on bats, whereas the East Java book deals with the Javanese Langur and Aceh with the Orangutan. Bali’s storybook focused on Long-tailed Macaque and lastly, Papua chose Cuscus as their topic. Based on the aspects mentioned above, the detailed organisation of the storybook creation included the development of questionnaires to measure the community impact, identifying local authors and illustrators as well as translators. Especially locating certified translators of Indonesian or English to the native languages has been a challenging task. After the stories have been conceptualised and illustrated, the books were printed and the distribution to different stakeholders has started. As the project is now in its final stage, the project exemplified a successful collaboration between the project team, local government and schools and the inclusion of animal and wildlife experts as book writing consultants.

If you would like to find out more about the project, watch the Q&A discussion following the presentation, or if you would like to get in touch with the OHCC team regarding the storybooks, visit the Members Area. There you can find the recording and contact details of the team.

Photo credits: OHCC Udayana Indonesia

Voices from the Ground: Reducing Risks in Tanzania’s Game Meat Industry

Posted on by Mascha Kaddori

At the ‘Voices from the Ground’ Event in December 2023 Dr. Daniel Mdetele and Qudra Kagembe presented the work of the Alliance funded TRAFFIC project in Tanzania. The project deals with Reducing Risks in Tanzania’s Game Meat Industry: Developing a One Health model for Safe, Sustainable and Legal Supply. Dr Daniel Mdetele leads the TRAFFIC team as Senior Project Manager for Wildlife Trade and One Health at TRAFFIC’s East Africa programme office. Qudra Kagembe is the focal point for wild meat trade in TRAFFIC’s East Africa team, based in Arusha in northern Tanzania. He works currently on the USAID-funded Wildlife TRAPS project, implemented by TRAFFIC and IUCN, and ensures its links to the GIZ-funded project.

Quadra Kagembe presented on the unique situation in Tanzania regarding the consumption of game meat. In 2020, the Game Meat trade was legalised under the Game Meat Selling Regulations. The legislation process was motivated by several reasons: A reduction of poaching, access to alternative source of protein, employment opportunities and therefore income, the support of community-based conservation initiatives and additional income for the government. However, the legislation of game meat production is also associated with certain risks and concerns regarding human health and species protection. Qudra Kagembe elaborated specifically on the concerns regarding food safety, sustainability and the compliance with regulations and how TRAFFIC aims to reduce those risks. To this end, TRAFFIC conducts a comprehensive value chain and disease risk analysis, which above all provides helpful information on the critical control points.

Dr. Mdetele reviewed the analysis on the disease risks and the identified and existing gaps around risk management. Some other issues observed were the high demand for wild meat, limited research on hunting areas and wild populations designated for the harvest of wildlife and lack of institutional framework. The project gathers qualitative and quantitative data to develop recommendations for risk management while considering the importance of livelihoods, socio-economic motivations, and traceability. TRAFFIC furthermore enhances the supply chain management through a multi-agency engagement which includes frontline personnel from wildlife, veterinary and public health agencies, Tanzania’s Game meat Selling Advisory Committee and the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries. Finally, the results of a social and behavioural change survey were presented as well as the resulting target groups for specific campaigns such as radio talk shows and posters. In the open discussion and Q&A that followed, the regulation of hunting areas and seasons, the consideration of endangered species and the existence of an informal supply of wild meat (including illegal bushmeat) in parallel to the legal game meat trade were discussed.

Registered Alliance members can find the recording of the event in the members area under the Voices from Ground Thread in the ‘News & Community’ forum.