Presented by Dr Samuel Adediran, Abdallah Twahir and Dr Lois Muraguri from GALVmed at the OIE, AVTA and GALVmed conference on the role of veterinary paraprofessionals in Africa. OIE, Africa Veterinary Technicians Association and GALVmed hosted the first continental Africa veterinary para-professional conference from 13-15th October 2015 in Pretoria, South Africa. Para-professional veterinarians (PPV) are those who are authorised by the veterinary statutory body and who are authorised to carry out certain designated tasks that are delegated to them under the direction/responsibility of a veterinarian. With the shortage of qualified veterinary surgeons, the size of rural areas, nomadic production systems and lack of supervision, the importance of PPV and how they operate is particularly relevant to Africa.