FAO’s Surveillance Evaluation Tool (SET) has led to significant investment into coordinated surveillance by the Government of Indonesia

Strong capacities for animal disease surveillance are essential to better prepare for emerging diseases that can affect people’s health and livelihoods. This has been demonstrated time and again with the spread of African swine disease (ASF), foot and mouth disease (FMD) and lumpy skin disease (LSD) throughout Asia in the past few years, or with the emergence of zoonotic diseases shared between animals and humans, such as avian influenza and COVID-19.

Countries rely on good surveillance systems to generate data that help animal health officials understand current disease threats and to form the best prevention and intervention policies. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), developed the Surveillance Evaluation Tool (SET). It is a tool to assess surveillance systems comprehensively, meaning a complete assessment of veterinary services capacities at national, provincial and district levels, regardless of their current priority diseases. The results can complement other existing evaluation methodologies, such as the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) or Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS).

In Southeast Asia, Indonesia is an example of the successful implementation of SET. An evaluation mission was conducted in 2019, with a team composed of veterinary epidemiologists from FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) and the Directorate General for Livestock and Animal Health Services (DGLAHS) of Indonesian’s Ministry of Agriculture. The team traveled to Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Lampung, Subang and Denpasar provinces to conduct interviews in the field and truly understand the realities of surveillance in different contexts.

In total over 200 stakeholders provided feedback, including field veterinary officers, quarantine staff, laboratory technicians, livestock, associations, staff from national parks and research institutes and more. This allowed the evaluation team to identify gaps and strengths of surveillance in Indonesia and develop actions that are specific and realistic for the national and local contexts.

Getting feedback from a veterinarian involved in surveillance in the government-owned animal health clinic in Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. ©FAO/Gaël Lamielle

 

Two years later, implementation of SET has improved the country’s capacities for coordinated surveillance between human, animal and environmental sectors

With the support of FAO and USAID, the DGLAHS took the results of the evaluation and turned them into action. Significant progress was made in the two years following the evaluation.

"SET has been constructive in navigating areas of improvement for the surveillance system in Indonesia. In total, we have prioritized six zoonotic diseases to be addressed jointly between sectors," said DGLAHS's Senior Veterinary Officer Syafrison Idris as he underlined that the Government of Indonesia produced guidelines and continued to conduct trainings at national, provincial and district levels to reach expected outcomes from the SET report. "Our coordination between sectors has enhanced by utilizing the integrated health surveillance information system (SIZE) as the platform to share disease information between sectors," he added.

Indonesia is on its way to develop a robust animal disease surveillance and information sharing system. Though capacity-building activities have focused on coordinated surveillance for zoonotic diseases until now, this work will be adapted to other transboundary animal diseases to ensure the country is well-prepared to animal disease threats from all kinds.

A systematic approach for capacity building transforming evaluation outputs into action can improve countries’ capacities to conduct systematic surveillance for animal disease threats in a way that is best adapted to their local context.

A regional approach to a better surveillance

Other countries in Asia and the Pacific have expressed interested in using SET to guide the development of their animal disease surveillance capacities, following the example of Indonesia. A regional approach to improving surveillance capacities using a comprehensive and standardized methodology such as SET can identify common gaps and areas to reinforce and can be supported by regional networks, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). SET can be used as a basis for a roadmap to improve surveillance at a regional level, and better protect communities from the threats of animal diseases.