What is the Gateway to Farm Animal Welfare?
The Gateway provides a single access point for international and national information related to farm animal welfare. It is a participatory platform open to a large contributors base and allows users to retrieve as well as to submit information. Its content is established by an open and transparent consensus. Censorship of opinions and points of view is not applied; however, content is intended to be pertinent, factual, notable, verifiable with cited sources, and neutrally presented. All submitted material has to be relevant for farm animal welfare. Users can also engage in commonly developed projects and thematic discussions.
It Gateway gives to less economically developed country governments, professionals and producers online access to the latest information and the opportunity to contribute information relevant to their own situation. In this way, the Gateway contributes to improve livestock welfare and thus health and productivity worldwide.
The Portal search engine provides rapid full text retrieval of documents in their original language. FAO is encouraging all national authorities, professionals and users at large, especially in less economically developed countries to take advantage of the Portal's features and submit their information alongside that already existing.
What are its objectives?
The portal intends to:
- build awareness and foster partnerships and sharing of information;
- facilitate access to the findings of animal welfare research and to information on relevant legislation and policies, codes of practice, events, scientific and technical publications, case studies, projects, training and funding opportunities, multimedia material, as well as animal welfare experts, organizations, educational and research centres;
- strengthen synergies and encourage partnerships among academic and producer organizations, research centres, government institutions, international agencies, animal welfare and other relevant non governmental organizations, financial institutions, and the private sector to facilitate the funding, execution and communication of initiatives related to animal welfare.
Why animal welfare?
The welfare of humans and the welfare of animals are closely linked. In many regions, a secure supply of food for people depends on the health and productivity of animals, and these in turn depend on the care and nutrition that animals receive. The massive increase in animal production of the last decades has involved has raised a wide range of ethical issues, including concern for animal welfare, which has to be considered alongside with environmental sustainability and secure access to food.
Animal welfare is recognized as a core component of a responsible livestock sector.
It is accepted to be integral to programmes that improve animal health, increase
livestock productivity, respond to natural disasters where animals are involved, and
to be instrumental in defining the fit between the genetic makeup of animals and the
environments in which they are kept. FAO realizes, on the other hand, that animal welfare practices, despite their evident positive impacts, are insufficiently applied throughout the sector, both in traditional and modern systems.
To enable more explicit and strategic attention to animal welfare and its main-
streaming into practice, within FAO’s capacity building activities, the Portal is a powerful instrument that disseminates useful information and builds synergies worldwide.
Who are the intended users?
It targets a wide range of users, from government officers to private professionals, from academia to a wide range of stakeholders, from international to non-governmental organizations.
The Gateway is addressing individuals and institutions with an interest in farm animal welfare and related topics. This could include professionals in:
- National government agencies and bodies such as:
- Agriculture or health ministries/departments
- Biosecurity agencies
- Standards organizations
- Export promotion agencies
- National and international scientific and private sector institutions such as:
- National research institutes and universities
- Industry associations
- Producers, processors, transporters, exporters, traders and retailers
- National and international non governmental organizations
- International and regional organizations and bodies such as:
- FAO, OECD, OIE and WTO
- Secretariats for international agreements and economic integration bodies
What are the potential benefits of using the Gateway?
Using the Gateway to retrieve and share information related to Farm Animal Welfare can assist
Competent authorities and others to achieve their mandates more effectively. With easy online access to international standards and national legislation, the effort and expense required to comply with them
and get access to increased trade opportunities can be reduced. The portal can also help countries and producers to improve the ability to implement animal welfare practices.
Sharing relevant and up-to-date national information through the Gateway enables countries and producers to inform about their effort to raise animal welfare standards in their production systems.
What types of information does the Gateway contain?
The Gateway contains information related to farm animal welfare. It includes more than 20 relevant data sets, and comprises thousands records (and expanding) linked to the following types of content:
- News, including press releases;
- Events: conferences, congresses, seminars, workshops, national, regional or international;
- Publications: books, reports, factsheets, case studies, booklets, proceedings, flyers, etc.;
- Legislation: National laws and regulations, including the European Community and the Council of Europe ones, related to animal welfare and protection, cruelty against animals, standards of humane care and treatment of animals;
- Codes of Practices and Recommendations: Codes and Recommendations by different institutions, stakeholders organizations and policy makers.
- Newsletters: current and archived issues of newsletters; regular circular information regarding upcoming meetings, projects, specific news and applications of relevance to animal welfare;
- Standards, Policies and Strategies: OIE internationally recognized standards, policies that lay down the basic rules and requirements to guide decisions and actions, and key strategies set out to streamline and implement the policies and to facilitate a coordinated and effective action;
- Scientific and technical papers: articles in printer friendly PDF format or found on the Scientific Journals web sites;
- Miscellaneus: Opinions, statement, communications, etc.;
- Training material: trainers' guides or manuals, simple notes or handouts, illustrated posters or booklets;
- Projects: any think of field or research project finally aiming at improving farm animal welfare;
- Training: training and educational opportunities (short and long term courses, seminars, workshops, etc.) on Farm Animal Welfare
- Funding: funding opportunities for research and field projects or any kind of activity finally aiming at improving farm animal welfare;
- Employment: opportunities at national, regional and international level, offered by international organizations, government institutions, non governmental organizations, etc.;
- Multimedia: Power Point Presentations, video and sound clips, etc.;
- Websites: any relevant website.
How up-to-date is information in the Gateway?
Content is monitored and updated on an ongoing basis, and new data sets are added as they become available. As far as possible the portal utilises web services technology to harvest data from external sources.
How does it work?
To have detailed information on how to search or submit documents and information, please refer to the Guidelines to users.
Who developed and operates it?
The Gateway was developed by FAO with the very active collaboration of key partners [link to PDF collaborating partners] currently operating in support of farm animal: the European Commission, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), Compassion In World Farming, the Humane Society International, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), , The Brooke, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), the International Dairy Federation (IDF), the International Federation of Agriculture Producers (IFAP), the Latin American Poultry Association (ALA) and the World Veterinary Association (WVA). Other interested international or regional parties can contact us if interested in collaborating; all expression of interest will be duly taken into account.
How is the Gateway organized and managed?
The Gateway is hosted on an FAO server and managed for its informatics components by FAO's Knowledge and Communication Department and by the webmaster of the FAO Animal Production and Health Division. Our team of information technology, web-design and communication experts guarantees optimal functionality of the Gateway. Content management, operations, policies and further developments are the responsibility of the FAO Coordinator and rely on the indications provided by the Gateway Editorial board [link to PDF Editorial Board], constituted by FAO staff closely involved with Farm Animal Welfare activities and by representatives of the Gateway collaborative partners. The Editorial board includes also recognized experts in the subject area and professionals for different world regions (Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania).
Obviously, even the most effective organizational structure is of little use without a team of strongly committed people that contribute with ideas, but also translates them into action: more information on the Gateway team members.
Forthcoming
The Portal will be periodically updated with new features, will host web-based events like electronic conferences and fora and will develop participatory projects on specific topics that will be of particular use for authorities and professionals in less economically developed countries and will indicated by the users themselves (e.g. animal welfare glossary, legislation comparative studies, etc).
How to get more information or assistance related to the Gateway?
For additional information about the Gateway or assistance, please email farmanimalwelfare@fao.org
