The current project deals with the organisation and implementation of training activities in non-EU countries in Africa and the European Neighbourhood Policy area under the “Better Training for Safer Food” initiative. The project objective is to improve and strengthen the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) framework and thereby to allow better production, processing and trade of safe food, healthy animals and plants. In this way, the project contributes to the achievement of long term EU objectives of reducing and eradicating poverty through sustainable development and the integration of developing countries into the world economy.

The training programme includes three workshops and a series of sustained training and technical assistance missions (STMs), which will be carried out in selected countries within the specified region.

SUSTAINED TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE MISSIONS (STMS)
STMs represent an innovative tool, made available under the BTSF initiative, to provide technical assistance that is tailored to the needs of individual Member States.

Within the BTSF World – Lot 4 programme, STMs are aimed at supporting both the competent authorities as well as private stakeholders (such as farmers, producers, etc.) in selected third countries, including at local and national level, in particular with regard to providing hands-on training thereby developing a training pathway, an action plan, manuals and/or other documented control procedures to ensure effective farming/production practices, inspection and verification mechanisms in the fields covered by this programme.

The general objectives of STMs stand as follows:

To provide hands-on training by the expert(s), including laboratory training where appropriate, to both competent authorities as well as private sector through consecutive missions along a learning process;

A training pathway should be established for each third country and sector. Such trainings will consist of mentoring competent authorities/private stakeholders throughout a learning process but also of performing preparatory drafting of manuals to be implemented later at a national and/or regional level;

To support the particular countries’ competent authorities in the assistance in developing manuals and other documented control procedures to set up effective verification mechanisms for the fields to be covered by the contract.

The organisation of such missions will require the identification of a pool of ‘high level’ experienced experts (with minimum of 5 years of working professional experience in the concerned fields) from which one or more can be assigned to the particular tasks to be executed in the selected third countries.

The BTSF World – Lot 4 programme will include 5 STMs of 5-10 day duration, allowing an in-depth and sustained assistance programme to be delivered 5 or more recipient countries, each time being tailored to the particular needs and circumstances of the beneficiary authorities, for a total amount of 220 working days.

COURSES, LOCATIONS AND ALLOCATION OF SEATS
The training sessions, organised in the form of workshops will be carried out in different regions of Africa, concerning ENP countries, and will be exclusively addressed to non-EU countries that have a major interest in the above-mentioned issues in view of the important trade or potential they maintain.

Three training workshops are included in the programme, each for approximately 60 participants, of which the participation of 45 is supported by the Contractor. 5-10 non-EU countries in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) area will be invited to participate in each workshop.

PARTECIPANT SELECTION
Participants shall consist of a proportionate number of both competent authorities and private stakeholders involved in production and official control activities in a particular country (depending on the theme of the activity), selected through previously identified National Contact Points (NCP) of that particular states. If there is no national contact point established in particular country participants can be proposed via governmental office in close cooperation with the EU delegation in the region.

For each workshop, participants will be identified in consultation with the competent Authorities and EU Delegations in non-EU countries, from relevant government ministries, services and laboratories in charge of the implementation of SPS requirements and/or which carry out food controls and testing.

It should be clear from their background and professional skills that the participation in the training activity will be a key element for the improvement of participants’ daily work.

In addition, as described below, the participants from the competent authorities will be requested to commit themselves to disseminate the knowledge received via different dissemination methods i.e. informing colleagues about the information received at the training, distributing the training materials among their colleagues, preparing informative articles in the professional national or, if possible, in international journals, preparing presentations based on the training materials for the obligatory national Competent authorities’ professional trainings or other disseminating methods which could be appropriate to share the information received via the BTSF trainings.