The WTO/SPS obligations provide WTO member states with the international framework for international trade of animals and animal products. Risk assessment is an important decision-support tool in international trade of animal and animal products. Risk assessment can identify and qualify or quantify animal health and food safety risks, and is the basis for the development of risk-based surveillance systems.

SAFOSO is the executing agency for a Swiss-funded capacity building project that is implemented in Viet Nam in close collaboration with FAO. In close cooperation with Vietnamese Department of Animal Health a project was developed to strengthen general knowledge about SPS obligations and technical capacities for conducting qualitative risk assessment within the national veterinary services. Knowledge is disseminated through a series of workshops with a mixture of theory, case studies and field visits. During the workshops, teams of risk assessors are also supported in the preparation of real-life risk assessments.

Due to the flexible set-up of the workshops, a significant amount of time is available for discussions about practical problems encountered in the risk assessments. At the end of the series of workshops, the participants have obtained an in-depth knowledge of the different elements of qualitative risk assessment, and have also gained practical experience in the preparation of a risk assessment report.