First COLEAD mission to the Dominican Republic as part of the new IDB-funded SIA project

First COLEAD mission to the Dominican Republic as part of the new IDB-funded SIA project

From 20 to 30 May, COLEAD carried out a mission in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as part of the launch of the SIA Project (Sanidad e Innovacion Agropecuaria). This project has been officially signed with the Dominican Ministry of Agriculture and is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The overall objective of the project is to improve food safety and the competitiveness of the agricultural sector in the Dominican Republic by increasing productivity, food safety and access to markets. The specific objectives are to improve :

• health services and food safety.
• innovation and transfer of animal and plant health technologies.
• the agricultural statistics system.

The mission included twenty-six meetings with all the stakeholders involved in the project, in particular the various public services affected by the challenges of implementing a health policy based on a “One Health” approach. At the same time, a series of field visits enabled to meet some key players in Dominican agricultural production.

During the first months of the project, COLEAD will support the Ministry of Agriculture and its departments in developing a new structural and legal framework. To this end, COLEAD and the Dominican Ministry of Agriculture will work together on 4 main areas of work, covering all the specific aspects of the Dominican agriculture and livestock sector, in the form of modules:

1. Sanitary reform, including updating regulations and developing a national SPS policy.
2. Improvement of SPS systems for better decision making based on scientific and factual data.
3. Strengthening sanitary and phytosanitary surveillance programmes to maintain the country’s phytosanitary status.
4. Improve health management within the Food Safety Department, focusing on good agricultural practices and certification.

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.