The International Trypanotolerance Centre (ITC) in collaboration with partner countries, institutions and organizations recently concluded a one-day Regional Validation Workshop for the newly developed Business Plan for the West Africa Livestock Innovation Centre (WALIC) on Thursday 4^th September 2014 at the Kairaba Beach Hotel, The Gambia.

This event brought together 25 participants from CORAF/WECARD, Senegal, Ghana and The Gambia. The honorable Minister of Agriculture for The Gambia, Mr. Solomon Owens, delivered the keynote opening address. Dr Richard Trevor Wilson, a consultant that led the elaboration of the Business Plan, presented the draft plan for further scrutiny. After questions and answers period, and further discussions, three groups were formed that further deliberated on some key issues in the draft business plan. Each group presented its work during plenary. A summary of the outcome of the day’s work was presented by the facilitator, Dr Richard Osei-Amponsah from the University of Ghana. The workshop closing remarks were presented by the PROGEBE project’s regional coordinator.

All comments, corrections, and suggestions were noted. They would be considered for action during the finalization of this document. The Business Plan was finally validated.