In the frame of a WOAH project on strengthening the laboratory capacities in rabies diagnostics in southern Africa, a 2 ½ day workshop was held in Gaborone, organized by the Botswana National Veterinary Laboratory in cooperation with the WOAH and WHO reference laboratory at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Germany. Participants from Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Angola were trained on rabies surveillance, simplified sampling techniques, the fluorescent antibody test, rapid field tests and realtime RT-qPCR for rabies. The event was a great success and underscored the joint efforts to control the disease in this part of Africa.