Dominican Republic moves towards one health system

Dominican Republic moves towards one health system

The SIA (Sanidad Innovación Agropecuaria) project of the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Agriculture was launched in April 2024. It is funded by the IDB and implemented by COLEAD. The many meetings and exchanges, that have taken place since our first mission in May, have enabled the first results of the project to be drawn up and presented to the various public stakeholders, including local authorities at the highest level.

As a reminder, the main objective of the SIA project is to improve the food security and competitiveness of the Dominican Republic’s agricultural sector by increasing productivity, food safety and market access. The overhaul of the organisation and processes of the sanitary and phytosanitary services is at the heart of the project. National food control systems play a vital role in protecting consumer health and ensuring fair practices in food trade.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recommends at least three types of organisation for national food control systems that can be applied in different countries. The most effective is based on an integrated national approach, known as an integrated or one health system. This is the main objective of this project.

A first COLEAD report under the SIA project presented recommendations for the expected overhaul of the existing system. These recommendations are based on international best practice (in particular from the FAO), but also on the specific context of the Dominican Republic, which is characterised by a large number of tourists, a steady increase in food consumption and a series of challenges in terms of consumer health and the sustainable protection of the country’s agricultural resources.

Aside from this process, the project is also implementing other activities, such as the development of more than 20 manuals related to best practices in agriculture and livestock. An event to present all these manuals will be organised in the first quarter of 2025 in Santo Domingo, gathering representatives of the public authorities and the private sector.

The SIA project is expected to enable the Dominican Republic, step by step, to reach the end of a virtuous circle and a national food system that is sustainable in economic, social and environmental terms.

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.