Emmanuelle Soubeyran’s priorities

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My programme will be aligned with the trajectory embodied in the 7^th Strategic Plan for the period 2021-2025 adopted by the World Assembly on 27 May 2020.

Following numerous discussions and in view of my experience as CVO, I propose to focus my programme on three core concepts, as follows:

1. WOAH, a leading organisation and a key player in global sanitary governance

Firstly, I shall devote all my energy to ensuring that WOAH makes its voice heard more clearly and to raising awareness of WOAH, broadening its reputation as an organisation of reference in the field of animal health and welfare. Improvements in animal health have positive consequences not only for the health of animals but also, beyond that, for food security, the economy, public health and preservation of biosecurity. This needs to be clearly understood outside livestock farming and the veterinary world by the general public and our policymakers. It is important to consolidate WOAH's core mission decisively in order to guarantee transparency in the global sanitary situation and provide security for international commerce. And to achieve this, robust standards will be developed using WOAH's scientific excellence and expertise, along with its networks of collaborating centres and reference laboratories. It is my wish that such a normative framework should be constructed jointly, agreed among the members and with the stakeholders, shared and disseminated, with support being provided for its implementation by its members.

Furthermore, in the face of the 21^st century's great issues - food and nutritional security, sustainable livestock farming, prevention of pandemics, combating and adapting to climate change, the preservation of biodiversity - I shall seek to win genuine political recognition for WOAH as an established institutional actor in global sanitary governance working in coordination with other international organisations. Indeed, WOAH, as a leading organisation, must be systematically included in all international reflection on certain sustainable development goals (SDG) wherever animal health and welfare are at issue.

In this way, we must raise the profile of WOAH's activities and those of the veterinary services all over the world.

2. WOAH: an organisation that listens to, and serves its members

I wish to see WOAH sharply expand support for its members in implementing standards. For this, I shall step up the communication and dissemination of standards, notably using new digital channels(webinars, newsletter, etc.) as well as by underpinning and promoting the role of the Observatory for the practical identification of the brakes and levers affecting the satisfactory application of standards, enabling more effective targeting of the policies to be developed together in close cooperation with the members' decision makers.

This will mean that a major focus in my work will be the development of collaborative, collective efforts to ensure that all veterinary services are more efficient and more responsive. I also wish to strengthen the networks and partnerships already in place so that, together, the members in a given region or sub-region can anticipate and plan strategies and activities for the surveillance, prevention and collective control of animal diseases. The regional commissions and regional and sub-regional representations will thus be central to such reflection and collaboration and lastly, WOAH must assist its members in the pursuit of the old adage "prevention is better than cure" by producing robust, well-supported advocacy. Reference centres will be designated for the economics of animal health.

3. WOAH: an organisation on the move

I shall place all my experience and all my leadership at the service of WOAH to take it forward to become an organisation that is more agile, more innovative and more inclusive, strengthening its fundamentals and its financial levers.

From the outset, I shall work on the basis of the recommendations of the study now under way on the"analysis and evaluation of WOAH's institutional, technical, and financial governance"using a process of consultation involving its members in order to identify the most relevant points on which to work to make WOAH more robust. We shall draw up a timetable for action.

In addition, I shall continue the work already begun on digital systems in order to equip WOAH with common tools in its different regions, and I shall also continue to invest in digital technology and new communication tools. The processing of big data to underpin sanitary security will also be an important component of my programme.

I wish to see expertise in the fields of human and social sciences supplementing WOAH's own body of expertise. This will provide the consolidation and analytical input that are essential today.

I shall pay particular attention to the level of representation of the regions in WOAH's various bodies, convinced as I am that decisions can only be reached with input that reflects the diversity of members' circumstances. I shall attach great importance to gender equality issues.

And finally, I shall endeavour to make WOAH's financial model secure so that it can continue to develop without compromise to the preservation of jobs, because I am aware that what makes WOAH strong is above all else the dedication and excellence of the women and the men it employs.