Establishment of a National Information System for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Services

Tunis July 18, 2022: The establishment of a new national information system for veterinary and phytosanitary services within the National Informatics Center (CNI) was announced today under the framework of the FAO project “Support for Official Control Services” (ASCO). ASCO promotes a support program for export competitiveness and is financed by the European Union. Through this project, it is also a matter of "supporting economic growth and quality employment through increased integration of the Tunisian economy into the European and global economic space," said Mr. Philippe Ankers, FAO Coordinator for North Africa and FAO Representative of Tunisia. 

Mr. Elyes Hamza, Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, affirmed that “the ASCO project is situated in the context of the reforms undertaken by the ministry with a view to improving the resilience of the agricultural sector in the face of health and phytosanitary risks and with the aim of strengthening the capacities of our official control services. The establishment of a veterinary and phytosanitary information system is part of the government's strategy to facilitate trade. The implementation of this system is a key step in enhancing efficiency, transparency and improving services for all professional operators. It will provide precise and accessible information on health, animals, plants, standards and regulations.”  

Beyond the expected information objective, Mr. Ankers specified the ambition to "mobilize national partners and actors to raise their awareness and inform them about the implementation of this national system, able to manage the data produced throughout the chain of official controls. This system will also make it possible to move from paper to the digitization of procedures and data exchanges. Eventually, thanks to this tool, we will evolve towards a one-stop-shop system.” 

The national partners affected by this new system are the central directorates, the Regional Agricultural Development Offices (CRDA), the National IT Center (CNI) and the border posts. Preparation for the implementation began in 2020, following a memorandum of understanding with the "Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise "G. Caporale"” (IZSA&M), an institute of TERAMO, which made it possible to design the specifications of this new national information system for veterinary and phytosanitary services. This first phase made it possible to document the data produced and the procedures throughout the chain of official controls. This system will be responsible for collecting, managing and systematically analyzing the data in order to generate appropriate information and certificates for the different stakeholders along the chain of custody of animal and plant products in Tunisia. 

In addition to this qualitative evolution of the national public control services towards digitalization, this new information system will contribute in the medium and long term to better development of these sectors with high added value but above all to an improvement in the competitiveness of animal and plant products.