The Regional Educational Programme for Animal Health Assistants, REPAHA, pursuant to a decision of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community at its Thirteenth Inter Sessional Meeting in February 2002, officially closed its doors for the last time on 31 August 2002.

REPAHA was established in 1975 when Caribbean Governments and International and Bilateral Organisations - PAHO, UNDP, CIDA, CFTC, EDF - came together in partnership to fill a need - a need to address the shortage of veterinary assistants and veterinarians in the drive to increase regional production of meat and milk supplies and in the context of outbreaks of the highly contagious foot and mouth disease. The immediate and effective solution was to seek to increase the middle management capacity in animal health delivery.

The Programme produced 478 skilled Animal Health and Veterinary Public Health Assistants and issued a number of Diplomas for Graduates in Livestock Production and Management. In addition, REPAHA has offered short-term Certificate Courses in various fields specific to agriculture and has produced over 100 trained graduates in these areas. Several graduates of REPAHA have gone on to higher levels of education earning degrees in veterinary and other sciences.

After 27 years, the Programme has significantly met the need for which it was established. The number of new students has fallen. The Programme has gone through many phases. It began as an externally-funded programme, moved to a mixed one with contributions to fixed costs coming from Member States and, finally in 1988, as a self-financed Project of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat with contributions from the Government of Guyana.

The Government of Guyana and the Conference of Heads of Government have agreed to merge the REPAHA Programme with the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) thereby ensuring the continuation of the delivery of an appropriate programme to meet the Region's needs in animal and veterinary public health.

After September 2002, all past students with enquiries regarding their academic records should contact the CARICOM Secretariat, Bank of Guyana Building, PO Box 10827, Georgetown, Guyana, Tel 592 226 9280-9, Fax 592 226 7816, e-mail hrm@caricom.org.