The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Iraq, in collaboration with Iraq’s Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (MoAWR-KRG), the Ministry of Health (federal and Kurdistan Regional Government), and the Veterinary Syndicate, conducted two consecutive Training of Trainers (ToT) workshops in Erbil from 7 to 15 October 2024. These workshops aimed to bolster Iraq’s animal disease surveillance and reporting systems by introducing the Event Mobile Application (EMA-i) and EMPRES-i+ platforms to veterinary professionals from across Iraq.

The two ToT workshops were conducted under the project entitled "Strengthening Iraq Veterinary Legislation and Expanding Delivery of Animal Health Services and Disease Surveillance," funded by the (DTRA), which aimed to enhance Iraq’s veterinary and disease surveillance systems. The workshops accommodated 65 veterinary professionals. The first workshop, held from 7-10 October 2024, involved 33 participants from six governorates: Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahuddin, and Baghdad. The second workshop, held from 12-15 October 2024, hosted 32 participants from six additional governorates: Babel, Al-Najaf, Karbala, Thi-Qar, Messan, and Al-Diwaniya.

The training covered EMA-i+ for real-time disease event reporting on farms and EMPRES-i+ for national-level data management and analysis. Participants engaged in practical, hands-on sessions, including the installation and configuration of these applications on smartphones and laptops to create, send, review, accept, and validate disease reports. These tools allowed veterinary professionals to enhance the quality and quantity of animal disease reporting, facilitating quicker decision-making and improving response times to outbreaks.