Provision of Technical Assistance to the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock to contribute to enhance the functionality of Afghanistan's Animal Health and Welfare Service.
Following the successful completion of phase I, LML was awarded this follow-on contract. Results to be achieved through the contract include:
Result 1: Core public functions, based on agreed policies, strategies and revised legal framework are being performed by the General Directorate of Animal Health and Production (GDAH&P) in collaboration with private and public sector institutions and organizations:
Result 1.1: Building on the accomplishments of the previous phase, principal and subsidiary legislations are further prepared, discussed and agreed by a wide range of stakeholders, and procedures for their implementation are developed;Result 1.2: Institutional and human resources capacity at GDAH&P and target PVOs further enhanced;Result 1.3: Animal Health and Production extension delivery capacity established and strengthened at central and to a certain extent regional levels.
Result 2: Standards in all areas of Animal Health Services improved through better coordination and quality control in 12 target provinces:
Result 2.1: Capacity of the national veterinary diagnostic laboratory services and the established diagnostic networks to detect and report the occurrence of contagious disease is strengthened;Result 2.2: Capacity for a national response to emergency events established;Result 2.3: Veterinary services delivery is harmonised across selected parts of the country and a public-private sector sanitary mandate partnership is in place.
Result 3: Veterinary Faculty is progressing towards full integration of para-professionals with a new curriculum introduced based around day-one competencies, and supported by continuing education modules.
Result 4: Economically viable production of selected livestock vaccines according to international quality and standards.
Result 5: Crosscutting
Result 5.1: Any necessary administrative assistance is provided to the Contracting Authority in the management of the Programme;Result 5.2: Liaison, synergies and complementarities within the project and between the project and other similar initiatives are developed and lessons learned through programme implementation serve to improve the relevant sector policy development and programming (incl. institutional replication in regions / provinces where progress is slower)
Under result 1 resent work has included the establishment of a twinning programme between the veterinary service and OIE and the re-establishment of the Legal Framework Working Group which is currently evaluating a number of draft Acts with the assistance of the TA team:
Draft "Animal Health and Veterinary Public Health Act", in compliance with international (OIE) standards;Draft "Veterinary Professions-& Para-Professions Act”Draft "Veterinary Medicines and Biological Substances Acts";
In addition progress is being made, in co-ordination with a institutional advisor based in MAIL and funded by the EC, in pushing other institutional reforms forward.
Under result 2, the team is currently undertaking the following:
The design (and subsequent construction supervision) of two new regional veterinary diagnostic (and food safety) laboratories in Mazar and Kunduz, a surgical teaching unit in Kabul and a new Bacterial Vaccine Laboratory in Kabul;Preparation of equipment specifications for each laboratory and subsequent commissioning of the equipment;helping to train staff in the veterinary public health (VPH) (food safety) laboratory, following establishment of the laboratory in phase 1. Currently the emphasis is on testing the quality of meat and milk for domestic consumption, with a longer term plan of testing products for export (mainly to neighbouring countries). The goal is to have the laboratory ready for accreditation by the end of the project. At the request of the Ministry, border inspection posts are now being set up, and staff training in inspection services. Two border posts have been set-up to date.Further strengthening of the VPH laboratory in Kabul through setting up a twinning programme with the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) in the UK.