Today, with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health marked a major milestone with the signing of a Cooperation Framework to ensure complementarities between the Animal Health Law and the Public Health Law, strengthening coordination between the veterinary and public health sectors.
The signing ceremony took place at the Ministry of Health headquarters in Baghdad, in the presence of Dr. Hani Moussa Badr Al-Aqabi Technical Deputy of the Ministry of Health, and Dr. Raed Kazem Al-Haddad, Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture representing the Minister, alongside Dr. Thamer Habib Hamza, Director General of the Veterinary Department and the official signatory on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Riad Abdul Ameer Al-Hilfi, Director General of the Public Health Department and the official signatory on behalf of the Ministry of Health , and Dr. Salah El Hajj Hassan FAO Iraq representative and team.
This framework was developed with the support and partnership of FAO, in coordination with a joint committee of technical and legal experts from both ministries, to address challenges that have persisted for many years — most notably overlapping legislation, which had hindered the delivery of veterinary and health services.
