The veterinary profession is a guarantee of control of animal health, food security and safety, animal welfare and preservation of our environment. The globalization of trade, responsible in a large part of the emergence of health crises mainly of animal origin, during the last decades, revealed or recalled the essential role of veterinarians in the establishment, at the international level, of a warning system and control of emerging and re-emerging diseases.
Therefore, it is now essential to ensure an optimal level of competence of both public and private veterinarians, throughout the world. The acquisition of these skills requires a high quality level of training: initial, specialized and complementary.
For these reasons, was created the network of establishments for veterinary education of the countries around the Mediterranean (REEV-Med), which have many similarities in common, in the field of animal health within the region. This network fits into the recommendations of the world conferences on veterinary education organized by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
REEV-Med CREATION
The REEV-Med network creation is the result of a process initiated in October 2010 in Paris (Workshop at the National Veterinary School of Alfort in collaboration with the TAIEX Office of the European Commission) and continued in March 2012 during a meeting held in the premises of the Veterinary faculty ofCordoba in Spain.
The first General Assembly of the REEV-Med was held on 27 and 28 of September 2012 at the IAV Hassan II in Rabat, Morocco and was attended by fifty participants representing Establishments for Veterinary Education fromAlgeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco and Tunisia.
REEV-Med OBJECTIVES
> To set up a process of harmonization and standardization of the veterinary curriculum in the Mediterranean region in accordance with international standards and guidelines of the OIE on the veterinary curriculum (Day 1 Graduates);
> To facilitate twinnings between veterinary education establishments, the OIE may finance some of them;
> To undergo a process of evaluation of member institutions of the REEV-Med similar to the European system of evaluation of veterinary education establishments, with the objective to train competent veterinarians both in public and private fields, in accordance with the international standards applied in the fight against animal diseases, including zoonosis;
> To encourage the exchanges of information, educational and research experiences and the facilitation of academic members and students mobility betweenthenetworkinstitutions andbetweenthemandthoseofotherpartsoftheworld;
> To develop and disseminate educational materials for veterinary education at all levels: initial, specialized and continuing education.
ACHIEVEMENT OF THESE OBJECTIVES
To achieve its objectives, the REEV-Med will use the tools and materials developed by the OIE, including:
> The OIE recommendations on minimum competencies expected of graduating veterinarians (‘Day 1 graduates’) to ensure the high quality of national Veterinary Services;
> Guidelines on the basic veterinary curriculum;
> The guide fortwinning projects between establishments for veterinary education.
The REEV-Med received the moral and material support of the OIE, which provides among others, support of its permanent Secretariat entrusted to the Sub-Regional Representation of the OIE in North Africa located in Tunis (Tunisia).
The network also received the support of the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE), which is willing to actively participate in the evaluating process of the Establishments for Veterinary Education in the Mediterranean region, as well as financial support from Italy.