Cairo, Egypt - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) a step-down training for JRA from 5-8 July 2021, to expand the national capacity using "Joint Risk Assessment" tool, to support the country to master the use of this tool, and take concrete measures to combat zoonotic diseases.

This training workshop was organized under the umbrella of the Tripartite collaboration among FAO, World Health Organization (WHO), and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

The Tripartite is taking root as evidenced by their joint effort in developing, piloting, and implementing the Joint Risk Assessment (JRA) tool in member countries, including Egypt. Multidisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration has become a requisite practice to effectively address health threats that emerge at the human-animal-environment interface including antimicrobial resistance and food safety threats.

The workshop started with one refreshing day for 17 national facilitators followed by the three-days stepdown training targeting 23 subnational officers from relevant ministries MoPH, MoALR and MoE from Fayoum and Qaliobia who are engaged in the fight against Zoonotic diseases and involved in Avian Influenza activities to act as JRA technical experts.

The workshop enabled health experts to jointly assess Avian Influenzas as selected priority health hazards in two selected governorates Fayoum and Qaliobia, while being trained on the use of the JRA tool for assessing the risk level of other priority health hazards in the future.

“FAO continue supporting the national authority to strengthen the national One Health platform in same line with global effort to address priority zoonotic disease. Multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach is key to address threats to humans, animals and the environment, including antimicrobial resistance and food safety.” said Toni Ettel, on behalf of FAO-ECTAD team leader in Egypt.

Developed by the Tripartite since 2014, the JRA operational tool provides an avenue for collaboration among the animal, human and environmental health sectors in order to assess the level and magnitude of risk of health hazards that emerge at the interface.

It worth to mention that, the Tripartite organized a JRA workshop in Cairo from 5th - 7th October 2020, which benefitted 47 One Health practitioners from the human, animal and environmental health sectors.

The JRA workshop is being coordinated by the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MOALR), and Ministry of Environment (MOE), along with FAO and WHO county offices.