A concept note from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) shows how rabies control capacity can be built in countries where the disease is prevalent.
The concept note argues that developing “stimulus packages” can provide technical and material support to initiate canine rabies elimination programmes.
These 'packages' would be tailor-made to support individual country needs, with an emphasis on monitoring and evaluation (e.g. using the Stepwise Approach towards Rabies Elimination, SARE).
Stimulus packages have already proven catalytic to achieving rabies control in Swaziland and Eastern Cape, and more recently in Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Cameroon.
The concept document will be used to seek donor funding for stimulus packages, as part of a broader business strategy to attain zero human rabies deaths by 2030.