While it features real solutions, final content will undergo review by a technical working group and incorporate feedback from a validation workshop planned for December 2020. Please see these as examples only, and not a definitive list.
Solution /Innovation:

FAO - Laboratory Mapping Tools (FAO-LMTs)

Link Envelope
Verified

Organization:

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

For more information:

Technical contact:
Dr. Béatrice Mouillé
Global Laboratory Unit Deputy Coordinator
FAO
Beatrice.Mouille@fao.org
More info, related website links:

http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/programmes/en/empres/news_231216b.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323776970_A_Tool_for_Assessment_of_Animal_Health_Laboratory_Safety_and_Biosecurity_The_Safety_Module_of_the_Food_and_Agriculture_Organization's_Laboratory_Mapping_Tool
Related PDF documents:
i8655en-3.pdf
Categories:
Camel, Dairy, Frameworks and tools, Healthy diets & Nutrition, One Health, Other breed, Pig, and Poultry
Has been implemented in:
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Ghana
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Challenge

The ability of diagnostic laboratories to detect and characterize infectious agents, and therefore to support the prevention and management of health threats, is frequently constrained by lack of skilled personnel, accurate and consistent laboratory protocols and methodologies, and quick data exchange systems. Such deficiencies of national laboratories may lead to false diagnosis and inappropriate responses to disease emergencies at the animal–human interface.
To address these gaps, FAO developed the FAO-Laboratory Mapping Tool (LMT) in 2010 in the context of a five -year project aimed at strengthening laboratory capacity for early detection and diagnosis of diseases, enabling rapid response to emerging issues, part of the USAID-funded Emerging Pandemic Threat (EPT) Program.

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Solution

The FAO-LMT is a standardized tool that allows to complete a semi-quantitative assessment of laboratory functionality and capacities. The FAO-LMT can provide objective evidence and more accurate assessment of where the diagnostic laboratory gaps are, and identifying capacity development needs. It can assist to develop strategic plans that will match with individual, national and regional laboratory needs. The tool also serves to establish a baseline for laboratory status prior to intervention, allowing for an accurate measurement of progress and impact post-intervention. The assessment is conducted via a detailed and standardized questionnaire, which can be applied by an external assessor or via self-assessment and may thus be used by any veterinary laboratory in any region or by any development partners working on veterinary laboratory capacity building. The tool enables the generation of a laboratory profile or "map" based on automatic calculations of the determined scores. The FAO LMT is a family of tools: the LMT-core allows to assess general laboratory capacities and capabilities. The FAO-LMT family was further expanded through the release in 2016 of the second LMT module for standardized assessment of environmental safety of veterinary laboratories and occupational risks: the LMT-Safetythe LMT-Safety module (LMT-S). The FAO-LMT-AMR developed in 2017 assesses laboratory capacity detection for Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). FAO-LMT modules for Quality Assurance and Biothreat are currently under development.
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Impact

This tool has already shown to be useful to countries and regions as well as their technical and financial partners by measuring evolution of the laboratory profile and by monitoring national and regional laboratory capacities for identification of priorities for intervention. The FAO-LMT is used as project management tool but interest has been shown by laboratory directors to also use it has a self-assessment tool to measure progress and to assist them in decision making in their laboratory.  Since 2010, the FAO-LMT has been applied for several consecutive years in more than 39 countries for a total of around 250 assessments and follow up assessments. For the purpose of training laboratories in using the tool for their self-assessment as well as to ensure that LMT assessments are carried out in an harmonized way to ensure that national, regional and global compilations can be completed, FAO has trained national LMT assessors on how to correctly use the tool and then be able to independently self-assess their own laboratory following an harmonized approach. The FAO LMT tool is freely available online, and the LMT community of assessors will allow for the FAO-LMT to be implemented in a harmonized way in other countries worldwide.

Category

Camel, Dairy, Frameworks and tools, Healthy diets & Nutrition, One Health, Other breed, Pig, and Poultry

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