Experiences of Papua New Guinea and other
Pacific Island Countries in leveraging resources
for Risk Assessments
SIDNEY SUMA, Developing Country Expert
Papua New Guinea
Undertaking Risk Assessments
RAs are predominately undertaken by the Biosecurity or Quarantine Authority of the
Ministry of Agriculture
Agriculture and Public (Environmental) Health personal do separate RA on Food Safety but
may undertake joint verification visit
Ministry of Environment, Forestry and other entities such as industry groups may participate
or assist in the RA, e.g. Oil Palm, Cocoa, Coffee Industry
Types of Resource Constraints associated with
Risk Assessments
Three main resource constraints are:
(i) Financial,
(ii) Technical capacity including human resources, facilities and utilities,
(iii) Accessibility and exchange of both official and useful information.
Leveraging resources for RA - Financial
Implementation of cost recovery or user-pay policy for RA and related costs
Donor funded projects
Import Permit Applications/Market Access request (keep cost down by the
interested party undertaking most for preliminary work)
Leveraging Resources - Technical
Market Access Applications
Donor funded bilateral or regional projects with RA components or activities
Regional organization project, e.g. PAPP, Regional fruit fly programme
Use of Training opportunities to undertake RA, e.g. IMPEXTEK program of SPC,
Container Hygiene, Regional Fruit Fly Program, PHAMA, RTFP, etc
Use of RA models developed by other technical bodies, use of CABI PRA
module, PPPO regional PRA model
Use of technical expertise from the private, NGOs, or industry bodies, e.g.
PNG-OPRA, CIC, CCIL, NARI and others
Leveraging resources - Information
Use of RA reports of RA conducted by third parties…e.g, taro mite PR,
Newcastle disease, invasive ants, Newcastle of poultry, etc.
Membership or accessibility of professional societies, technical sharing and
information exchange networks, APPS, AES, PestNet, CABI, ISSG, Aliens-L, PII
ProMed, etc…
Information generated from regional projects and surveillance activities, Fruit
fly project, Avian Influenza, PAPP, etc…
Market Access submissions
Challenges
Policy and Regulatory support – all RA done by entities other the competent authority need CA approval
Current laws don’t necessary support or provide a mechanism for third party RAs
Lack of inter-agency coordination and cooperation
Reluctance of the CA to engage the stakeholders – limited consultation and participation
Increasing trade volumes
Inadequate documented procedures
Difficulties or undue pleasure in applying user-pay policy
Lessons learnt
Any form or level of RA is better than no RA
Prior approval or permission from the CA before undertaking or considering
third party RA is crucial.
Use of training of opportunities to undertake real RA
Application of user-pay policy
Thank you
Inputs of colleagues in PNG and Solomon Islands
Photograph credits to SPC-Land Resources Division
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