The Livestock and Veterinary Services Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) has on Tuesday 31st March 2026 held graduation and certification of about 20 ISAVET Cohort II trainees. The graduation and certification ceremony was carried out at the Conference Hall of the Ministry on 1st Floor – Youyi Building in Freetown.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka – Minister of Agriculture and Food Security expressed gratitude for the event and he stressed on the significance of the training with respect to ‘Feed Salone’ value chain for which he added that the livestock value chain stands tall with reference to production and ensure prevention of zoonotic diseases.
The Minister enlightened that part of the training has to do with equipping the cohort trainees with the required expertise needed in addressing animal health issues. He called on the cohort trainees to utilize the wealth of human resource at their disposal.
Dr. Kpaka assured that MAFS would continue to undertake more training and in the same vein he encouraged the cohort II trainees to continue to capacitate themselves.
On his part, Mr. Saidu Bamayange – Director of Livestock and Veterinary Services Division MAFS, underscored the utmost significance of the agricultural sector to the Government and people of Sierra Leone.
He furthered by expressing heartfelt gratitude to the cross-section of mentees some of which are from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Ministry of Environment. He extends same gratitude to the universities and furthered by acknowledging support from partners, with funds from USAID through FAO – which was used to undertake the training programme and the World Bank Pandemic Fund was in place to ensure the graduation becomes a success.
He admonished the cohort II graduates to not only consider the ISAVET Programme as a mere training but rather it should be considered as a call to action for the country at large on the path to having better services on animal health and surveillance system.
Director Bamayange welcomed the graduates by considering them as part of the workforce of the Livestock and Veterinary Services of Ministry with a firm commitment to providing detection, response, treatment and timely submission of reports.
In his speech, Mr. Dube Kululeko who is the FAO Representative, showered appreciation on the mentees from the various universities – for having dedicated extra work of supervising irrespective of their busy schedules. He showered same appreciation to the mentors within government ministries – for also taking time off their busy schedules to assist the graduates – on the path to entrenching the One Heath approach within MAFS.
The FAO Rep commended the openness of the selection process which is a clear show of collaboration within government ministries and further appealed for such a collaboration to be maintained, with reference to the pandemic fund project – committed on strengthening the Ministry’s capacity to detect and respond to diseases on time using the One Health initiative.
He assured of FAO’s willingness to collaborate with MAFS, providing technical assistance on the path to ensuring the production of more cohorts.
