ARISE Plus developed a training course to support ASEAN Health Officials in building capacity of Member States Officials on Food Borne Diseases Outbreak –dealing with all aspects including preventive measures, monitoring, outbreak management and reporting.
The training course was developed by ARISE Plus experts in close consultation with the ASEAN Secretariat officials, officials from Viet Nam as the lead proponent and the ASEAN Health Cluster 4 -Ensuring Food Safety, a grouping of health officials representing the 10 ASEAN Member States. The objective of the training course is to build knowledge on factors contributing to Food Borne Diseases, to provide tools to facilitate the identification of specific control measures that lead to the prevention of such disease and for conducting investigations when such outbreaks occur.
The training course was delivered from 22- 29 April 2021 through video conferencing facility due to the travel restrictions in place. There was huge interest in the training from ASEAN Member States with participation of more than fifty experts from nine member-states. The group exercises conducted during the training provided an opportunity for participants to learn from each other and were very much appreciated by participants The training material for the three courses was developed delivered on pilot basis will be compiled and provided to ASEAN Secretariat and to training institutions in ASEAN for future use after it is reviewed and improved based on the feedback from the pilot training.
This was the first program in the series of pilot training courses developed for ASEAN and subsequent training courses on Risk Based Inspections and Food Hygiene are planned for delivery later this year. The three training courses were selected from priorities identified by through a survey conducted.
The capacity and capability of the food safety authorities to conduct their activities in a competent, effective and responsible manner is a critical factor not only for the improving food safety in Member States and additionally is essential in building mutual confidence to support the on-going initiatives in harmonisation of food safety measures as part of the regional market integration in the food trade in ASEAN.
