Participants of the workshop

Hanoi, Viet Nam. In the COVID-19 new normal context, today the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) held an implementation workshop for the project “Risk mitigation and management of health threats from animals in Viet Nam.”

This project is built on the success and lessons learnt from the “Emerging Pandemic Threats 2 (EPT2): Risk Mitigation and Management of Human Health Threats along Animal Value Chains” project and takes into account the importance of the need to address continually evolving and constantly changing complexity of the epidemiology of avian influenza and other Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) in the region. The three expected outcomes of this project are: 1) enhanced management of public health risk through improved monitoring and sharing information on zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) across all sectors; 2) risk of zoonoses and AMR emerged and transmitted along animal production chain reduced; and 3) evidenced based policy instruments on zoonoses, AMR, and animal production-related control designed and revised.

Ultimately, the project will support MARD to further develop their capacity in coordination among agencies, information sharing, and narrowing gaps that were identified from the EPT-2 project. The project seeks to improve expertise of relevant departments of MARD, including Department of Animal Health (DAH), Department of Livestock Production (DLP), National Agricultural Extension Center (NAEC), Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Management Authority, and Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST). Through this project, MARD is expected to reach the level of sustainability in technical capacity in AMR and zoonotic disease according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Joint External Evaluation (JEE) criteria. With these increased capacities, MARD will be able to mitigate risks and manage health threats from many different animals. This would allow the livestock industry to have access to expanded markets. In turn, the increased national income would allow MARD to be able to sustain project achievements in the future.

The workshop provided a platform for participants coming from government agencies and development partners to discuss work plan as well as activities supporting the implementation of the project. Presentations were contributed by representatives from DAH, DLP, NAEC, CITES Management Authority and Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development.  Livestock and zoonotic diseases are potentially catastrophic types of agricultural risks which may also impact human health. The Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) of FAO in Viet Nam has been supporting the Government of Viet Nam on emergency response and addressing the root causes of disease emergence and spread, including understanding various farming systems and value chains.

At this event, Dr Pawin Padungtod, ECTAD Senior Technical Coordinator, acknowledged the financial support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and FAO to contribute to the Global Health Security Agenda.

On behalf of FAO, Dr Padungtod also emphasized: “We look forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration to contributing to the global health security and the Government of Viet Nam priorities and fulfill FAO aspiration to achieve better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and better life”