Dominican Republic – First Strategic Workshop on the National Sanitary and Phytosanitary Policy: SPS policy development is a cornerstone of the One Health approach of the SIA project

The Sanidad e Innovación Agropecuaria (SIA) project, implemented by COLEAD on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic, reached an important milestone in April 2025 with the organisation of the first workshop dedicated to the development of the National Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Policy and Strategic Guidelines.

This ambitious project, financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) through loan IDB 4909/OC-DR, began in May 2024. It aims to strengthen the country’s institutional and technical capacities around the One Health approach through more than 40 activities carried out by an international team of 15 COLEAD experts based in Latin America, the Dominican Republic and Belgium.

A foundation workshop for future national SPS policy

The workshop, chaired by Engineer Rosa Lazala, President of the National Committee for Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (CNMSF), brought together more than 30 participants from various ministries, the private sector and international organisations working in the country. It was actively supported by Pablo Lopez-Herrerias, project coordinator, and Dr Katrina Naut, SPS policy expert.

The workshop followed the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) methodology, designed as a strategic diagnostic tool. The results of this collective exercise will directly contribute to the definition of the strategic objectives, institutional goals and priority actions of the future national SPS policy.

A key action for the future of the agri-food sector

The development of this SPS policy is a cornerstone of the SIA project. It will play a crucial role in ensuring the sanitary and phytosanitary compliance of Dominican agricultural products, while facilitating their access to national and international markets.

Read more about COLEAD’s SIA project in the Dominican Republic: See the project page

This activity is supported by the SIA project (Sanidad e Innovación Agropecuaria), implemented by COLEAD on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic and financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under loan no. BID-4909/OC-DR. This publication has been produced with the financial support of the IDB. The contents are the sole responsibility of COLEAD and in no way reflect the views of the Dominican Ministry of Agriculture or the IDB.