The Regional Project on Sustainable Management of Endemic Ruminant Livestock in West Africa (PROGEBE) will from Thursday18th to 20th June, 2009 organise a two-day workshop on Genetic Improvement of Endemic Ruminant Livestock (ERL) at the Baobab Holiday Resort.

The programme is expected to bring together PROGEBE Regional and National Coordination Unit staff from The Gambia, Guinea, Mali and Senegal, ILRI and national research stations representatives, as well as livestock breeders from member countries. According to a press release from the Banjul Office, among the objectives of the workshop are effect  lessons learnt from past and ongoing experiences in the area of genetic improvement in the project area; start the process of developing concerted and adapted strategies for the implementation of the genetic improvement programs planned by the project; Identify for each country the components of an operation action plan involving all stakeholders; define mechanism for continuous exchanges between the various stakeholders.

As part of the two-day activities of the workshop, include a field visit to ITC Keneba station and, a two- day plenary and working sessions to share lessons learned from the visit and the experiences of other countries and develop operational plans for implementing programs in the countries. "It is expected that all countries will be well equipped and in a position to start the implementation of the genetic improvement programs of the project," the release noted

PROGEBE was born of the will of The Gambia, Guinea, Mali and Senegal, to preserve and enhance the productivity of their endemic ruminant livestock.  Due to population pressure, drought and anthropic action (deforestation, agriculture, bush fires etc.), genetic traits of trypanotolerant livestock breeds are under increasing threat of dilution and exotic livestock breeds are invading the natural habitat of trypanotolerant livestock.  Therefore, PROGEBE aims at preserving and strengthening in a sustainable manner the genetic traits of endemic livestock, increasing its productivity and exploitation within and enabling physical and institutional environment.

The project is funded mainly by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and executed by the International Trypanotolerance Centre (ITC) for the AfDB and the United Nations Office for Project SErvices (UNOPS) for GEF. The main project partners are ministries and research institutes in charge of livestock in the four member countries: ITC in The Gambia, Agricultural Research Institute of Guinea (IRAG),  Institute of Rural Economy (IER) in Mali and Senegalese Agricultural Research Institute (ISRA), ILRI based in Nairobi, Kenya, CIRDES based in Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso and FAO.

The Regional Coordination Unit is hosted by ITC in Banjul.  In each country, the project operates through a National Coordination Unit, based respectively at Abuko for The Gambia, Conakry for Guinea, Bouguini for Mali and Kolda for Senegal.