Preface

The World Organisation for Animal Health’s (OIE) mission is to foster global co-operation to improve animal health, animal welfare and veterinary public health worldwide. OIE Members develop and adopt international standards to better co-ordinate their approach to prevent and control animal diseases, facilitate safe international trade as well as strengthen national Veterinary Services.

Our Members face a growing challenge to co-ordinate their policy making to manage global sanitary risks in a world which is becoming increasingly globalised and complex. Indeed, animal diseases and zoonoses know no borders, as demonstrated by the ongoing transboundary spread of foot and mouth disease, avian influenza and African swine fever, among many other examples.

We know that many OIE Members face challenges in the implementation of our international standards. Understanding to what extent and how the OIE standards are used by Members is essential to ensure our standards are fit for purpose and relevant. In May 2018, the World Assembly of OIE Delegates adopted a resolution recommending that an Observatory on the implementation of OIE standards be established to address these issues.

For such an ambitious and challenging project, the OIE entered into a specific collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to explore the potential solutions for the design of the OIE Observatory. Using its expertise in international regulatory cooperation, the OECD carried out the study reported in this document which provides an analysis of key features of OIE standards, as well as a review of the existing sources of information in relation to their implementation.

The OECD study highlights that a project to monitor implementation of OIE standards will be complex and challenging because of the voluntary nature of the OIE standards, and the variability of implementing mechanisms. We know that OIE Members use a range of approaches in implementing OIE standards because of differences in sanitary situations, legal frameworks and procedures, public and private sector relationships, national systems for production and processing, trade profiles and acceptable levels of risks.

Despite this complexity, the OECD has provided recommendations to assist the OIE in the design of the OIE Observatory. The OIE Observatory is an important strategic and long-term project for the OIE, that will contribute to the strengthening of international harmonisation of national sanitary measures.

I would finally like to emphasise that this study was developed in the framework of OECD work on international regulatory co-operation and the partnership of international organisation for effective international rulemaking, to which the OIE is actively contributing along with 50 other international organisations. Learning collectively from the experiences of international organisations helps us to understand how international organisations can promote multilateral solutions and improve our collective contribution to a sustainable future.

Monique Eloit

OIE Director General