Mia MacDonald Speaking at the Africa Animal Welfare Conference

Executive Director, Mia MacDonald, will be speaking at the Africa Animal Welfare Conference (AAWC) coordinated by Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) and co-hosted with the UN Environment and the Government of Ethiopia. The conference will be held in Ethiopia, from September 2-4 2019.

AAWC, now in its third year, is steadily emerging as a major forum for practitioners, policy makers and stakeholders in animal welfare to engage and build capacity in this sector, and further still, to relate the sector to relevant actors in development. The conference looks to bring together civil society groups involved in animal welfare, wildlife and environmental conservation, NGOs, government officials and government affiliated institutions, academics, researchers, media, policy makers, legal practitioners, community members, interest groups, development practitioners and relevant stakeholders.

This year’s theme is “Animals, Environment and Sustainable Development in 21st Century Africa: An Interlinked Approach.” The conference will focus on the role of animals towards livelihoods’ support systems and attainment of sustainable development, and the leverage that better animal welfare will offer as a factor in sustainable development. It is envisioned that the discussions emanating from the sessions will center around the connection of animals to overall socio-economic development in Africa and point out the unused and perhaps unstated potential that can be harnessed from animals to make them a core element in the development agenda of the continent while at the same time taking cognizant of their wellbeing. This will be expected to spiral into greater interest and investment in improving Animal Welfare in Africa, and consequently human and environmental health will be realized as a key benefit in the inter-connection from the previous conference.

We will also be co-organizing a dinner at the conference with our colleagues at the Global Forest Coalition (GFC) called “Alternatives to Unsustainable Livestock Production – Initial Dialogue at the AAWC” on September 2nd. This will be the first of a series of dialogues around the linkages between addressing unsustainable livestock farming, pastoralism, Indigenous landscape management practices, agroecology, forest conservation and climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Also, there will be a book signing event at the conference on September 3rd for the book Africa and her Animals, in which Mia has written a chapter.