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Libreville, Gabon 4/12/24 – The policy framework of the African Union’s sanitary and phytosanitary systems seeks to strengthen the efficiency of intra-African trade within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), senior AU programme coordinator Chiluba Mwape said in Libreville, Gabon.
Chiluba Mwape, who was speaking at the fifth coordination session for experts in the sanitary and phytosanitary sector, said that the AU strategy aims to harmonise effective border process measures, share information and improve technical capacities.
He pointed out that cross-border trade in high-value food and agro-products has expanded in recent decades, driven by changing consumer tastes and advances in production, transport and supply.
He also noted that this intra-African trade grew by 7.2 per cent in annual terms, reaching 192 billion dollars, which would represent 15 per cent of total African trade in 2023, compared to 13.6 per cent a year ago.
Chiluba Mwape, who was taking stock of the activities carried out by the African Union’s sanitary and phytosanitary programme, said that this policy framework seeks to promote the alignment of SPS systems in Africa with international standards, using scientific justification and helping to operationalise them.
‘The policy framework can facilitate the goal of bringing together a market of more than 1.2 billion people fuelled by evolving consumer tastes and advances in production, transport and other supply chain technologies and methods,’ assured the senior programme officer of the SPS programme.
During the period in question (June to November) this year, the national food control systems of 11 countries were evaluated and the strategic action plan approved for (Comoros, Kenya, Seychelles, Mauritius, Eswatini, Egypt, Djibouti, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, ZM, Uganda).
In this area, collaboration and trade facilitation were strengthened, Burkina Faso’s national SPS committee was supported, meetings of the African Union’s coordination forum were held and draft guidelines for involving the informal food sector were drawn up.
Other activities included support for Member States’ participation in CAC 47, as well as the application of the phytosanitary capacity assessment tool to 12 Member States.
Intending to strengthen technical capacities, consultations began on the development of an early warning system for animal feed and food, training sessions on the application of good regulatory practices were held in 15 Member States on risk-based food inspection and 22 on the surveillance of food-borne diseases and the management of food safety events.
According to our interlocutor, plans are afoot for the formal establishment of a technical working group to develop the Pan-African Strategy for the elimination of rabies in Africa by 2030 and the creation of a regional veterinary committee for the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
Drawing up action plans for the identification of cross-border value chains to strengthen the system and the development and promotion of knowledge management systems and information-sharing platforms on food safety, plant health and animal and plant health are part of the plans to be taken into account in the future, which include convening a meeting of the AU SPS Coordination Forum and also developing a communication strategy on SPS issues.
