Agricultural Health, Safety and Agrifood Quality

The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the need to operate within the context of a “One Health” approach and to develop an integrated perspective of the dimensions of agricultural development, agrifood systems and public-private interaction, promoting leadership and a culture of collaboration, through different forms of joint work.

Based on this conceptual approach, the program will seek to:

• Foster technical and institutional improvements in agricultural health and food safety systems (AHFS), incorporating the “One Health” concept and advocating for the use of digital tools and the development of new or improvement of existing methodologies to more efficiently manage the aforementioned systems.
• Harmonize, update and implement science-based health, safety and quality standards, promoting the harmonization, updating and implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, within the framework of the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, the Trade Facilitation and the Technical Barriers to Trade agreements, by strengthening technical capacities for decision-making and institutional capacities for the implementation of these agreements.
• Develop capacities to adopt best practices and to tackle emerging issues, in a bid to strengthen national and regional capacities in prevention, preparation, management and response to emerging issues and sanitary and phytosanitary emergencies, by promoting the use of new technologies and knowledge management and the development of effective prevention and control programs for zoonotic diseases, to reduce their impact on public health.

Thus, the program will focus on promoting agrifood systems, operating in a productive, competitive and sustainable agriculture sector and supplying safe food to local, regional and global markets, through the development, improvement and implementation of policies on agricultural health, safety and agrifood quality.

Within this context, the digitalization of AHFS (sanitary intelligence, use of digital technologies to promote a culture of safety and to prevent pests and diseases, electronic certification), science-based decision-making and the “One Health” concept will be priority areas in the work of the program.