The technical assistance is part of the “Inclusive and climate investments finance in the livestock sector of Uzbekistan” Project, financed with a loan of $100 million (COL) on June 28, 2001 by the Agence Française de Developpement (AFD). The project aims at promoting the sustainable and climate compliant development of the livestock sector of Uzbekistan by supporting selected investments through credit lines, guarantees, investment subsidies and Technical Assistance to stakeholders and final beneficiaries.

The project executing agency is the Committee for Veterinary and Livestock Development under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

In order to reach project objectives, a Technical Assistance is provided to support access to banking services for sustainable and climate-smart investments to targeted end-beneficiaries. The TA dedicated to the stimulation of the demand for the proposed climate-smart credit lines is designed to reach a large number of beneficiary in two direction: (i) improving knowledge on livestock sector and climate change (ii) while supporting a better access to sustainable banking services. In that regard, TA should strengthen relevant professional organizations skills on climate change and sustainable investments in the livestock sector as well as capacities to provide trainings in order to rely on them to widespread the trainings to be proposed.

Technical support is provided to a range of producer’s organisations with the following objectives:

• Raise awareness of professional organisations’ staff and members on animal productions impacts, and vulnerabilities to, climate change.
• Develop these organisations’ staff and members knowledge on access to banking services, sustainable finance, financial literacy, management skills, accounting and all other relevant field related to climate-smart business planning;
• Strengthen these organisations’ abilities to provide trainings not only to their members but also to a broader interested public consisting of the whole livestock sector value-chain with a specific focus on smallholders (Dehkans, Tomorqas), Family enterprises, Sole entrepreneurs, and cooperatives;
• Ensure that this technical support will allow relevant professional organization to set-up a network of training and consulting services dedicated to giving advises to their members and the targeted public on:
  o climate-smart farming practices ;
  o climate change mitigations and adaptation in the Livestock sector ;
  o sustainable investments opportunities ;
  o access to banking services and economic/business capabilities (financial literacy, management skills, accounting, business planning, etc.)

The stimulation of the demand for the credit line proposed in the framework of this technical assistance needs to address two core technical aspects:

• The need for farmers, as well as all the professional network of the value chains, to understand and fully endorse the reality of climate change and how the livestock sector more specifically affects climate change (both negatively through greenhouse gas emissions but also positively). Depending on the considered value chain, this would be an opportunity to inform farmers about good practices and corresponding investments that could be implemented at farm level to limit their negative impacts and increase positive ones.
• The need for farmers to develop business management skills in order to build their capacities to prepare and present bankable projects. To do so, they should be supported by qualified technico-economic analysts, with in-depth knowledge of the national animal production value chains in which the farmer is willing to invest.

The project is carried out in partnership with the company Agriconsulting Europe S.A. (AESA)  and Aykan Invest LLC.

Duration: 05/2026 – 03/2028

This framework contract is implemented under supervision of  the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), in coordination with the Knowledge, Innovation and Partnership Management (KNOW) Unit and the Engagement and External Relations (ENREL) Unit which support crisis preparedness training activities in IPA countries. The ENREL Unit, through the Preparatory measures for participation of IPA beneficiaries in EFSA 2023 – 2026 Action has the overall responsibility to coordinate the planning and execution of crisis preparedness activities under this procurement.

The aim of the contract  is to provide a multi-annual crisis preparedness training, by:

• developing the annual training plans and materials, including measures of success of the training;
• organising and executing the training on site, collection of feedback and measure its success;
• advising EFSA and the IPA countries by making recommendations on areas that need further improvement for crisis preparedness.

The expected outcomes of the training are:

• developed/enhanced urgent response capacities in both, risk assessment and risk communication;
• improved incident response collaboration between IPA national coordinating institutions and IPA national stakeholders involved during incident/crisis situations within EFSA’s remit, and between IPA countries and, EFSA;
• improved crisis preparedness procedures.

The overall objectives of the training are to:

• increase IPA countries’ knowledge and understanding of general crisis handling concepts and specifically of EFSA’s crisis handling procedures;
• improve preparedness and response planning for crisis situations through testing procedures in place at national (contingency plans) and EU level (e.g. the crisis general plan) and crisis handling procedures, helping IPA countries’ address crisis preparedness needs and reduce time for action;
• improve coherence, interoperability and coordination at local level and between the local, national, regional and EU levels, to be prepared for communication and decision-making challenges in crisis situations.
  The training will also indirectly contribute to the harmonisation of risk assessment approaches and build trust amongst IPA countries’ authorities and EFSA in each other’s risk assessments.

Duration: 03/2024 – 03/2027

The consulting service is part of the Livestock Value Chain Development (LVCD) Project, financed with a loan of $150 million (COL) on September 25, 2019 by the Asian Development Bank. The project executing agency is the Committee for Veterinary and Livestock Development under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan, with the participation of the Asian Development Bank.

The primary objective of the assignment is to enhance the development of private sector veterinary practices in Uzbekistan, focusing on improvement of access to clinical veterinary services, promoting effective animal management and health issues, and ensuring the prudent use of antimicrobial drugs.

In order to achieve the above objectives, the project is supporting the Samarkand State University of Veterinary Medicine, Livestock and Biotechnologies in the Samarkand region in:

• the implementation of sustainable Continuing Education program for Veterinarians (CEV) at the Institute for Retraining and Advanced Training of Pedagogical and Specialized Personnel in the field of veterinary medicine and livestock (Institute) and
• in the development of Private Veterinary Practice model.

The Scope of Work for this Assignment is divided in three phases:

The achievement of mentioned objectives will result in an improved animal husbandry and health management, nutrition and feeding efficiency, as well as reproductive efficiency. The improved access to veterinary services and associated activities will increase the productivity and quality of the products, leading to increases in livestock sector incomes, improved hygiene and health, and reduced incidence of disease amongst livestock producers.

The project is carried out in partnership with the company Aykan Invest LLC.

Duration: 12/2024 – 05/2025

Better Training for Safer Food” (BTSF) is an initiative of the European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate-General (DG SANTE) aimed at organising a European Union (EU) training strategy in the areas of food law, feed law, animal health and animal welfare rules, as well as plant health rules.

The objectives of the training activities are:

• to further improve EU and non-EU officials’ collaboration through INFOSAN
• To reinforce networking between EU and non-EU countries’ food safety crisis managers and, by bringing together participants from different Member States and non-EU countries,
• to allow the exchange of experience and disseminate best practices for control activities and procedures on food safety crisis management taking into account the experience and achievements on food safety crisis preparedeness and management in the EU and non-EU countries’ institutions.

The workshop is intended for staff in charge of food safety controls and crisis management in both EU and non-EU countries:

a) staff of the competent authority/ies involved in contingency planning and operation of contingency plans relating to food crisis incidents and their management;

b) staff of the competent authority/ies designated as contact points within the INFOSAN network for the exchange of information on food safety crisis incidents and management.  (Link to BTSF Food safety crisis preparedness)

Training workshops will be held in the following countries:

• Albania
• Argentina
• Brazil
• Colombia
• China
• Costa Rica
• Georgia
• India
• Malaysia
• Moldova
• Morocco
• Philippines
• Serbia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Thailand
• Vietnam

Duration: 15/12/2021 – 15/12/2025

“Better Training for Safer Food” (BTSF) is an initiative of the European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate-General (DG SANTE) aimed at organising a European Union (EU) training strategy in the areas of food law, feed law, animal health and animal welfare rules, as well as plant health rules.

The project is being carried out by a consortium composed of Application Européenne de Technologies et de Services (AETS – Link to AETS website) as lead company and OPERA Srl.

The objective of the training is to spread knowledge and disseminate best practices for official controls among competent authorities involved in control activities and other relevant enforcement actions along the entire agri-food chain. It also aims to favour exchange of experience in order to increase the level of expertise on the rules introduced by this new legal framework, the level of consistency of their implementation across the EU and the level of cooperation between relevant authorities. (Link to BTSF New official control regulation).

Training workshops will be held in the following countries:

• Ireland
• Italy
• Malta
• Latvia
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania

Duration: 03/2021 – 03/2025

“Better Training for Safer Food” (BTSF) is an initiative of the European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate-General (DG SANTE) aimed at organising a European Union (EU) training strategy in the areas of food law, feed law, animal health and animal welfare rules, as well as plant health rules.

Apart from the above described training activities, the Contractor will be responsible to also organise special expert missions in selected Member States and non-EU countries. These sustained training and technical assistance missions (STMs) are aimed at supporting the competent authorities in selected countries, including at local and regional level, in particular with regard to the development of action plans, information tools, documented control procedures and setting up of effective verification mechanisms in the fields covered by this contract (Link to BTSF EU SPS 2021).

Training workshops were held in the following countries on indicated topics:

• Spain (Plant health contingency planning)
• Lithuania (African swine fever)
• Spain (IMSOC – RASFF/iTRACES  – AAC)
• Spain (EFSA’s toolkit for PH disease surveillance)
• Spain (African swine fever)
• Belgium (Codex aliminentarius activities)

while sustained training missions will be held in the following locations on the indicated topics:

• Romania, Moldova (Rabies)
• Romania (African Swine fever)
• Serbia (CSF free disease status)
• Cyprus (reduction of pesticide use two missions)
• Italy (African swine fever)

Duration: 03/2021 – 03/2025

Better Training for Safer Food” (BTSF) is an initiative of the European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate-General (DG SANTE) aimed at organising a European Union (EU) training strategy in the areas of food law, feed law, animal health and animal welfare rules, as well as plant health rules.

The objective of the training is to develop cooperation activities with non-EU trade partners with a view to improve the effectiveness of official control systems in relation to fraudulent practices across the agri-food chain, including Internet sales, and their ability to detect frauds.

The training courses will aim at improving knowledge and skills of control staff on specific investigations techniques used to identify fraud and to control the e-commerce of food and food related products, disseminating best practices and enabling the exchange of practical experience in the matters covered by the training, addressed to participants from targeted non_EU countries, selected in consultation with the beneficiary competent authorities and the EU Delegations in these countries, from relevant government ministries, services and laboratories involved in controlling novel foods.  (Link to BTSF Fraud in the agri-food chain)

Training workshops will be held in the following countries:

• Argentina
• Colombia
• Ethiopia
• India
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Senegal
• Vietnam

Duration: 04/12/2020- 04/12/2025

Better Training for Safer Food” (BTSF) is an initiative of the European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate-General (DG SANTE) aimed at organising a European Union (EU) training strategy in the areas of food law, feed law, animal health and animal welfare rules, as well as plant health rules.

The main goal of the training programme is to prepare, hold and evaluate inter-sectorial table top simulation exercises on outbreak coordination and crisis response involving agri-food chain authorities, and where needed public health authorities, as well as crisis coordinators. These crisis simulation exercises are expected to contribute to:

• improving preparedness and response planning for crisis situations through testing procedures in place at national (contingency plans) and EU level (e.g. the crisis general plan);
• ensuring coherence, interoperability and coordination between the local, national and EU level;
• ensuring interaction between Member States and with international partners concerned by using the appropriate channels;
• ensuring coordination between the competent authority and other stakeholders at national level;
• guaranteeing coordination of risk communication at local, national and EU level;
• improving preparedness to communication and decision-making challenges in crisis situations, such as e.g. deciding when to communicate, how to handle uncertainty when communicating and how to balance scientific assessments vs political evaluation, trade, economic impact, consumer confidence and public health.

(Link to BTSF intersectoral simulation exercise).

Training workshops will be held in Brussels, Belgium. 

Duration: 19/12/2019 – 19/12/2025

Better Training for Safer Food” (BTSF) is an initiative of the European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate-General (DG SANTE) aimed at organising a European Union (EU) training strategy in the areas of food law, feed law, animal health and animal welfare rules, as well as plant health rules.

The main goal of the training programme is to disseminate best practices for the implementation of principles and methods of food chain risk assessment, improving knowledge of this complex area of work and ensuring consistent and high implementation standards across the European Union. The present training, through the adoption of a practical approach, will aim to enhance knowledge of Competent Authorities and scientists from public institutions and national authorities involved in food chain risk assessment in order to increase the level of expertise and harmonisation. (Link to BTSF Risk assessment in the food chain).

Training workshops will be held in the following countries:

• Austria
• Italy
• Poland
• Latvia
• Spain

Duration: 08/2019 – 03/2025