Under the USAID Trade and Investment Reform Support Program (TIRSP), T&M Associates developed and led the SPS strengthening program. We trained over 200 government, industry, academic, and food safety professionals in food safety inspection for processors and retailers, risk assessment, and border inspections. In collaboration with the USDA developed a Cochran food safety training program which 6 delegates from Azerbaijan attended. Under TIRSP assisted the Azerbaijan State Phytosanitary Services in improving compliance with international norms as required under WTO by increasing transparency of the import/export process for plant based products, published and disseminated over 2000 reference guides on plant diseases in Azeri, and created a tri-lingual (Russian, Azeri, English) web site which provides trading partners with the information they need. In 2010, with the USDA, designed and provided food safety training to over 100 companies with our Ukrainian partner IIFSQ. The training included the publication and disseminated two in-depth HACCP manuals for Dairy and fruit and vegetables in Russian. In 2009 we supported the Biological Threat Reduction Program and World Bank efforts to improve veterinary education and emergency animal disease response. This led to the execution of a 3-day Avian Influenza field exercise held in September 2009 which included over 100 participants from 13 government agencies and has been named a best practice by the World Bank and the development of a 10-year strategic plan for improving the Veterinary Education in Azerbaijan that has attracted funding from government and other donors.
