Our partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) is addressing the chronic shortage of qualified animal health workers across the Pacific and Timor-Leste. Together, we are working towards the regional goal of a paraveterinary workforce that is adequately and sustainably trained to support local livestock productivity and regional biosecurity. 

The Asia Pacific Consortium of Veterinary Epidemiology (APCOVE) was established in 2020 to build veterinary epidemiology capacity across the Asia Pacific region. Led by the University of Sydney, APCOVE brings together over 50 animal health experts from all veterinary schools in Australia and New Zealand, and eight partner countries: Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

Through the Pacific Networked Diagnostics and Support project (PaNDAS), CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) is working with laboratories and field partners in Pacific Island countries and territories to strengthen Pacific capabilities to detect and diagnose animal and zoonotic diseases in the region.

CSIRO's Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) is supporting Southeast Asian and Pacific laboratories to adopt modern animal health diagnostic and surveillance tools through the APPLLe project.

CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) is providing targeted biorisk management training to laboratory leaders across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Through a collaboration with Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture, CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) is supporting Indonesia’s Disease Investigation Centre Wates (DIC Wates) to strengthen its national role in identifying and characterising avian influenza outbreaks across Indonesia.

CSIRO’s Australian e-Health Research Centre is supporting the governments of the Philippines and Fiji to adopt national digital health standards and health information exchange systems (interoperability) through the PHR Strengthening Standards Capability Project (SSCP).

The project’s objectives are to improve the ability of both countries’ health systems to share electronic health data in consistent and coordinated ways; and to build local expertise that can further develop and support these digital health systems.

In partnership with three Thai state-owned organisations, CSIRO’s Biotherapeutics team is improving Thailand’s capacity to manufacture essential drugs and improve local and equitable access to medicines. Project activities include trainings at CSIRO’s state-of-the-art facilities in Victoria, Australia where project partners are supported to perform end-to-end process development work on drugs selected by the Thai partners based on national priorities.

CSIRO’s Biotherapeutics team has partnered with the Malaysia Genome and Vaccine Institute (MGVI-NIBM) to build MGVI’s capability to manufacture vaccines, including a Leptospirosis vaccine.

CSIRO support is provided through in-person train‑the‑trainer programs – covering technology readiness and manufacturability assessment – and quality assessments and backstopping observation of MGVI staff.

Australia is partnering with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development (WHO CCNM (UTS)) at the University of Technology Sydney, working with the South Pacific Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers Alliance (SPCNMOA) to improve nursing and midwifery leadership, education, standards, and practice, through the Strengthening Health Workforce in the Pacific (SHWP) initiative.