|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 24 October 2024 – The African Food Safety Agency will be created to ensure responsibility for strengthening the capacity, governance, coordination, and harmonisation of food safety systems in Africa, Dr. Amare Ayalew, Programme Manager of the AU Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa, said in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Amare Ayalew made these remarks while presenting the status of the future Food Safety Agency as a specialised technical institution of the African Union during the extraordinary session of the specialised technical committee.
He said that the main objectives of this Agency are to coordinate food safety initiatives and promote the harmonisation of food safety policies, strategies, and regulations, including the provision of technical support to improve food safety to support agricultural transformation, safeguarding consumer health, and facilitating trade within Member States.
“The adoption of the Statute of the African Food Safety Agency, as a legal instrument, is a crucial step towards making the Agency operational without further delay,” said PACA’s chief manager.
He emphasised that its immediate implementation would allow for the completion of other actions, including the selection of the host country, the approval of the structure, and the allocation of the budget, which are necessary steps to make the Agency operational and avoid delays.
According to the Agency’s descriptive statutes, advocating, guiding, and supporting the modernisation of national food safety systems through policy, legislative, and institutional frameworks, strengthens capacities for scientific advice and food risk analysis (including risk assessment, risk management, risk communication) in the Member States.
Establishing a functional food safety data centre for the continent and promoting the generation and sharing of credible food safety data and information are the institution’s strengths.
It is also part of the agency’s strategy to create an operational African rapid alert system for food and feed and provide technical and logistical support to laboratories used for official food safety controls, as well as testing services.
Elsewhere, the agency aims to collaborate with relevant institutions to improve the provision of food safety certification services for intra-African and global trade, support the participation of member states in international food safety standard-setting processes, and coordinate the articulation of African common positions.
Its action plan also includes coordinating the development and harmonisation of professional skills, knowledge, and competencies required for effective food safety control, advocating investment and collaborating with relevant institutions to increase the competitiveness of African food products and products, and supporting the establishment, strengthening and networking of food control facilities, including laboratory systems, in collaboration with Member States.
