188. The Commission noted the Fourth Progress Report of the Project and Trust Fund presented by FAO and WHO as the working document and commended the work of the FAO/WHO Consultative Group.
189. The Commission acknowledged that the Trust Fund had become operational since March 2004 after the threshold of US$ 500,000 was reached and noted, with appreciation, that in addition to the donors listed in Table 1 of the working document, Sweden and Australia were also contributing to the Trust Fund. It encouraged other countries to contribute and recommended that FAO and WHO look into the possibilities to seek funds from other sources, such as Foundations, while ensuring that conflict of interest be avoided.
190. The Commission was informed that the call for applications for 2005 would be issued in July 2004 with 1 October 2004 as deadline, thus allowing countries more time for their internal selection process and that the guidelines for application would be revised to add more clarity and avoid misinterpretation, particularly with regard to the matching requirements.
191. In noting the views of the 54th Session of the Executive Committee[100], the Commission stressed the importance of national coordination and the key role of Codex Contact Points for the successful operation of the Trust Fund and agreed that the submissions for application to the Trust Fund should be channelled exclusively through the Codex Contact Point.
192 Several delegations and observers pointed out that the goal of the Trust Fund was to promote effective participation in Codex and that this required an ability to follow-up and benefit from Codex work to enhance food safety at the national level.
193. The Commission generally supported the use of the Trust Fund for projects other than for travelling to Codex sessions such as participation in training activities, building capacities of new Codex members and the provision of additional funding to a country taking on greater responsibilities at the regional level. It was however stressed that participation in training activities on Codex should not be the primary focus of the Trust Fund, but should rather covered by the Regular Programme and extra-budgetary resources of FAO and WHO as part of their capacity building activities.
194. The Commission requested that the criteria used in the distribution of funds should be kept under review. Further consideration should be given to ensuring adequate regional representation and the effectiveness of the participation of the beneficiary countries in Codex work.
195 The Assistant Director-General of WHO acknowledged the generous contributions to the Trust Fund, reminding the Commission that the received funds still amounted to one quarter of the anticipated annual contributions to the Fund. The issue of effective participation might lead to further consideration of technical cooperation requirements. Acknowledging the twelve-years life-span of the Trust Fund it would be advisable for the Commission to develop a vision of where it wanted international food safety systems to be by 2015.
196. In general, the Assistant Director-General of WHO reminded the Commission that innovative solutions were needed to address language and documentation issues to avoid increased costs of the Codex programme. She also emphasized the need for Codex to work with other international organizations such as OIE and ISO, achieving greater visibility of the good work of Codex. New approaches could also be considered in this area, for example, through potential use of Codex standards within the ISO certification procedure.
|
[99] ALINORM 04/27/10F; INF.9
(Report of the Administrator of the FAO/WHO Trust Fund); ALINORM 04/27/3 paras
44-54; ALINORM 04/37/4 paras 94-103; LIM.18 (Comments of Consumers
International). [100] ALINORM 04/27/4, paras 94-103. |
