Food Safety Working Group in Viet Nam

About Food Safety Working Group

The Food Safety Working Group (FSWG) is an initiative founded in 2015 to bring key government agencies, development partners and other stakeholders together in policy dialogues, knowledge sharing and discussions on food safety issues in Viet Nam.

The FSWG includes participants from Vietnam government agencies and development partners. Government agencies includes functioning agencies under Office of the Government (OOG), Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT). Development partners include embassies, national and international development agencies working and/or interested in food safety.

With approximately 60 organizations registered, the network is actively engaging and contributing to food safety response efforts in Viet Nam. The FSWG stretching out to include non-governmental organizations (NGO), civil society organizations (CSO), private sector and industry associations.

Working mechanism

The FSWG membership is voluntary. FSWG meetings are held quarterly, and FSWG members take turns to chair the group and host the meeting. Currently, the group has been chaired by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) since July 2021. The chairmanship of the group normally runs for two years.

Goal and objectives

The overall goal of the FSWG is to contribute to the improvement of food safety in Vietnam and increased competitiveness of Vietnamese food products for domestic consumption and international trade.

Specific objectives are:

To function as a conduit for sharing and learning about on-going food safety works led by government agencies and/or development partners,
To serve as a platform for the joint programming of all tasks broadly in the food safety arena, for example, sharing concept notes/ terms of reference for studies being sponsored by individual DPs and seeking comments and suggestions; seeking opportunities for synergies and collaborations through joint missions,
To act as a forum for sharing outputs of such tasks,
To create a platform for the government to seek feedback and comment for policy making process,
To prepare for the semi-annual high-level meeting on food safety,
To form a mechanism for seeking consensus on major strategic priorities based on sound diagnostic assessments including seeking an agreed set of priorities for the sector.

Contacts

Fred Unger
Regional Representative - South, East and Southeast Asia
Chi Nguyen
Regional Communications Officer for East and Southeast Asia

E-bulletin

Latest achievements

Report on Vietnam food safety risks management: challenges and opportunities was launched in 2017. This report was led by the World Bank (WB) and contributed by many research and development partners who are members of FSWG.
FSWG website was created and is currently running as a sub-page of ILRI Viet Nam website. It gives an overview of the group, its objective, the list of members, and key highlights of the group.
17 quarterly meetings have been held as of May 2022 where group members can exchange and update information related to food safety.
A core group (FAO, WB, Canada Embassy in Vietnam and International Livestock Research Institute - ILRI) was established to plan quarterly meetings.
FSWG members have contributed to the master plan framework for the One Health Partnership of Vietnam for 2022-2025 and the National Action Plan for Food System.