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This veterinary workforce strategy will facilitate the assessment of veterinary workforce needs in the country.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) conducts a validation workshop starting today to gather inputs from multi-stakeholders for the developed Veterinary Service Directorate (VSD) workforce strategy, in order to make necessary corrections in the document and produce a final version.

In Ghana, the Veterinary Service Directorate Ministry of the Food and Agriculture (MOFA) is the organisation in charge of animal health service delivery. The frontline staff of the VSD plays a key role in the delivery of animal health services. However, most of the time, these staffs have little epidemiological capacity in terms of disease surveillance, outbreak investigation and report writing.

The Joint External Evaluation (JEE) mission of the core capacities of the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the Republic of Ghana conducted in 2017 identified that a veterinary workforce strategy was lacking. In 2021, a national consultant was therefore hired to develop a veterinary workforce strategy for the VSD, which has been completed and requires inputs from the different stakeholders.

The country needs to ensure a public health and veterinary workforce strategy

Currently, the skills mix and workforce strength is not commensurate with the mandate reposed in the VSD. Laboratory training, which is a critical tool for timely accurate disease diagnosis has diminished and had negatively affected the area of Veterinary Public Health. Presently, staff motivation is inadequate, and the recruitment of veterinary personnel is another major issue on its own.

Today’s workshop will gather 25 participants from different institutions coming from the livestock sector such as the Manager of the Kumasi Zoo of the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, the representative of the Veterinary Council of Ghana, the Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, the dean of the School of Veterinary Science, University for Development Studies, a representative of the Dean of the School of Veterinary medicine, University of Ghana, a representative of the Dean, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, a representative of the Director of the Animal Research Institute,  staff of the Veterinary Service, a  farmer and civil society organization. Following the current validation workshop, the national consultant will make any necessary changes and submit a final version to the VSD for adoption, printing and dissemination.

Main recommendations for the workforce strategy

For effective and efficient implementation of the workforce strategy, participants recommended, among other suggestions, to detail the action plan table, and clearly include the career progression roadmap and a career progression path for the Community Animal Health Workers (CAHW). This workforce strategy is expected to attract and retain talented individuals, improve the skills and capability of animal health professionals and improve learning and development opportunities for veterinarians and animal health professionals.