40. Dr Patience Mensah, Regional Adviser for Food Safety from the WHO Regional Office for Africa, presented a paper on “International, regional, sub-regional and national cooperation in food safety (CAF 05/6) ”. The paper discussed the challenges facing food safety regulators and food safety assurance systems in Africa. It also identified opportunities for improving cooperation, collaboration and communication related to food safety by citing examples of good practices from the region, which emphasized that food safety assurance is a shared responsibility. In particular, the paper listed examples of cooperation between FAO and WHO and emphasized the need for cooperation at several levels, including cooperation between and within sectors at country level; cooperation between the public and private sectors, consumer groups and civil society and cooperation at regional, subregional and international levels. The paper provided several recommendations for consideration by member states that are reflected in appropriate sections of the strategic plan.
41. The conference agreed on the importance of cooperation in the region and expressed its appreciation to WHO for preparing the paper.
42. The conference discussed several problems associated with food control in the region, including dumping of sub-standard food in countries coming out from war situations, non-functional laboratories, lack of reference standards for laboratories, non-maintenance of equipment and improperly labelled food donations. The conference shared best practices on cooperation and coordination of food safety activities, including the following: a one source food safety information centre (Ghana); establishment of a Food Control Authority (Mali, Morocco, Zimbabwe); sharing of laboratory facilities (SADC region); and sharing of information in food safety emergencies (SADC region).
43. Many delegates recognized the ineffectiveness of existing systems and provided suggestions for future regional collaboration. These suggestions included the following: establishment of pan-African standards based on Codex standards; strengthening of regional positions in the Codex fora; publication of a list of rejected shipments to ensure that the shipment will not be received by another country; inventory of the capabilities of food safety laboratories in the region and identification and strengthening of centres of excellence in various aspects of laboratory analysis; establishment of a food safety desk within the African Union; and inclusion of food-borne disease surveillance in national integrated disease surveillance systems for reporting at the regional level.
