FAO in Egypt

FAO facilitate public private dialogue to assist policy implementation in the poultry industry

21/06/2021

Alexandria, Egypt - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through its Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) facilitated a dialogue between the Government and poultry businesses on how to better cooperate for the enforcement of policy instruments. This was conducted during a meeting jointly organized by FAO and the General Organization of Veterinary Services (GOVS) for two days in Alexandria.

The dialogue aims to operationalize the current public private policy framework, thereby allowing livestock-related stakeholders to adopt good biosecurity practices that reduce public health threats and improve their business. These policy instruments complement, reinforce and are synergetic with other actions undertaken by public health, environmental and other One Health stakeholders.

This dialogue was organized by the Africa Sustainable Livestock 2050 Project (ASL2050), implemented in Egypt through FAO-ECTAD, with participants from GOVS and the local veterinary services ofof Kafr Shukr, Banha, Qewesna and Ashmoun districts as well as of Qaliubia and Menofia governorates.

The meeting was officially opened by Dr Mohammed Atea, undersecretary of the Preventive Medicine department of GOVS. In his opening remarks, Dr Atea mentioned that the government recognizes the importance of the poultry industry for improving food security and livelihoods of Egyptians. He went on to say that, this was evidenced by the recent Presidential decree issued to establish a supreme committee mandated to support the reform and reorganize the poultry industry through promoting best practices including good husbandry practices and biosecurity measures along the poultry value-chain.

Representing the FAO ECTAD team, Dr Ahmed Saad delivered opening remarks and said, “the dialogue aimed at finding effective ways of cooperation between poultry businesses and public actors to enable the adoption of biosecurity practices in the production node of the poultry value chain and the enforcement of existing policy and legislation.” He also underscored that this is in line with FAO’s policy to engage the private sector in promoting the productivity of the agri-food system.

In her part, Dr Amira Kamal, National Project Coordinator of ASL 2050 project said, “The initial focus is on poultry, because the sector is rapidly growing and transforming in Egypt, and on biosecurity, because animal diseases may not only badly affect the poultry sector but also have major negative impacts on public health, such as through zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance.”

The workshop also enabled to prioritizing public sector actions to facilitate the adoption of biosecurity practices in the production node of poultry value chain and discussion of related challenges linked to the actions suggested for implementation.

ASL2050 is a cross-country project that supports a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach to facilitate the implementation of existing public health laws and regulations in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda.