This year’s Annual International Summer School and Cultural Boma has successfully closed with an International Conference at the Imperial Royale, Kampala. The Annual program is hosted by the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB), Makerere University and is organized in collaboration with partners from America.

The 2 day event was held under the theme, “Showcasing one health research output of North-South collaborative initiatives” on 3rd and 4th of July 2014.
The international conference is one of the components of the Summer School program that is characterized by a Summer School Course, an International ’Boma’ and an International Conference whose aim is to disseminate research output arising from the CIMTRAZ project.

Capacity Building in Integrated Management of Trans-boundary Animal Diseases and Zoonoses (CIMTRADZ) project was started in 2011. The project’s main partnering universities were Makerere University and North Dakota State University, until early this year when Mississippi State University took over from North Dakota State University.

Speaking at the Conference, Prof. Margaret Khaitsa, the American partnership director from Mississippi State University explained that the CIMTRADZ project has accomplished a lot since its inception in terms of capacity building, curriculum development, knowledge transfer, community engagement and outreach.

The Masters’ program in Infectious Diseases and Management offered at CoVAB is one of the fruits of this project. Since its inception, 21 students have successfully gone through the project; acquiring skills in handling infectious diseases using the One-Health approach. Prof. John David Kabasa, Principal CoVAB is the African Partnership Director of the CIMTRADZ project.

In addition to Makerere University and Mississippi State University, there are other partnering universities from North America and Africa under the AFRUS-IDM (Africa United States-Integrated Diseases Management) network. The universities work together to handle infectious diseases with support from Higher Education for Development (HED), which is USAID funded.

Speaking on behalf of HED, Dr. Alemneh Teshome said that HED supports American Universities that are in partnership with universities from developing countries.

“I am pleased to note that the CIMTRADZ project is one of the best run and most effective among all the 11 projects that HED supports”, he said.

While opening the conference on behalf of Makerere University’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. John David Kabasa, said that the discussions and decisions arrived at during the conference should be followed through.

“We should integrate our regional and international efforts so as to attract more funding.” He also noted that the Boma and conference were very enriching platforms that should be promoted to benefit more people. “What we need is a framework in which we can harmonize everything that we are doing at our respective institutions”, Prof. Kabasa added, arguing that this will help strengthen global citizenship and attract more funding.

“The fruits of our labor are beginning to be recognized”, noted Dr. Thomas Easley from USAID with regard to what has been achieved so far in the CIMTRADZ project which will run until June 2015. He was particularly impressed with the success of the Summer School program that equipped participants with practical skills through their interaction with local Ugandan communities.

Dr. Moses Olum, one of the Summer School participants from Kenya was grateful for the exposure he got through the program.

“The exposure I got especially through the field component of the summer course has broadened by perspective in the veterinary field,” he said.  He was also happy about the interaction he got with peers from different countries as it gave them an opportunity to learn from each other. All 21 summer school participants received certificates of completion after the conference.

Dr. David Owiny, Dean School of Biosecurity, Biotechnical and Laboratory Sciences at CoVAB expressed optimism that next year’s summer school would be bigger than this year’s, owing to the networks successfully established. Prof. Khaitsa made an appeal to national governments to come to the aid of the CIMTRADZ project so as to further the goals of the project.

National University of Rwanda, Mikelle University, Nairobi University, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Columbus State University. University of Missouri, Washington State University, Michigan State University and University of Saskatchewan were all represented at the Conference.

The next Summer School will run next June to July 2015.

By Jovia Musubika-Kavulu, CoVAB