A new OIE and OECD collaboration to face animal health and welfare future challenges

^{Dr Monique ÉLOIT, Director General of the OIE, and Ms Mari KIVINIEMI, Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD.
© OIE/C.Bertrand-Ferrandis}

Paris, 7 September 2016 – In a modern world characterised by a continuous population growth and by a globalisation of exchanges of people, animals, pathogens, data and goods, numerous are the challenges to be faced by nations to ensure economic prosperity as well as social and environmental well-being of their populations.

Both OIE and OECD work in supporting their Member Countries to meet these challenges. They provide a forum in which governments can work together to share experiences, seek solutions to common problems, establish recommendations and adopt standards in their areas of interest.

Thanks to its continued monitoring of events in its 35 member countries as well as outside, to its regular projections of short and medium-term economic developments, OECD helps governments to foster prosperity through economic growth and financial stability. It also ensures the environmental implications of economic and social development are taken into account.

The OIE is for its part mandated to improve animal health, veterinary public health and animal welfare worldwide, as well as transparency of the global animal disease situation. Standard-setting organisation of reference on these areas, the OIE supports its members in the implementation of these standards thanks to many capacity building activities and programmes, with at strengthening animal health systems worldwide.

In this context, reinforcing collaboration and exchanges between OECD and OIE appears like a natural way forward to reinforce their respective objectives. Dr Monique ÉLOIT and Ms Mari KIVINIEMI consequently gathered this afternoon at the headquarters of the World Organisation for Animal Health to sign the first memorandum of understanding between their two organisations.

The cooperation of the two organisations will notably concern exchange of information and technical cooperation, in particular by focusing on best practices, policies and economic evaluations, related to animal health and welfare, veterinary drugs (including antimicrobial resistance), impact of livestock on environment, biological threat reduction from threats of natural, accidental and intentional origin.

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See more:

• OECD website
• OIE website

For more information, please contact:

• Catherine Bertrand-Ferrandis, Head of OIE Communication unit : [email protected]
• Lawrence Speer, OCDE Media Relations Manager: [email protected]