The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) had a busy 2024 World Food Safety Day, much of it focused on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Feed The Future EatSafe project, which concluded in July 2024. The Alliance focused on the key message around the theme of this year’s campaign, including the importance of effective communication, multisectoral collaboration, food safety plans, and shared responsibilities, which tied in well with the findings coming out of EatSafe on how best to improve food safety in traditional food markets.

World Food Safety Day participation included:

• Blog on the EatSafe work in a traditional market in Ethiopia, and the importance of multi-stakeholder involvement, and increased agency to improve food safety.
• Blog on GAIN’s policy work around food safety, stressing the need to coordinate across different government levels and the need for multisector involvement from all parts of the food system.
• Blog on the EatSafe work in traditional markets in Nigeria, showing how the project enhanced food safety in traditional markets by utilizing multiple approaches, broad stakeholder engagement, and local ownership.
• Release of a GAIN Discussion Paper presenting a food systems approach to food safety, with examples of the food safety work that GAIN is already involved in.
• Podcast with Food Safety News highlighting the work of EatSafe.
• USAID’s Kitchen Sink podcast – with the Chief of Parties of the 3 Feed the Future food safety activities, including EatSafe.
• GAIN Communications global social media campaign on food safety.
• GAIN Mozambique dubbed the Food Safety: The Biggest Development Challenge You’ve Never Heard Of video into Portuguese for use at WFSD activities. 

Live events were also held in Nigeria and Ethiopia. In Nigeria, GAIN participated in week-long series of events in Abuja organized by the federal government. The federal government worked with partners, including the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Agriculture Export Alliance (FAEA), and the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) to host several capacity-building, and awareness-raising events. GAIN Nigeria was selected to participate in one of the four technical working groups established to support the implementation of the Nigerian National Policy on Food Safety and Quality and its Implementation Plan 2023. The EatSafe team also organized World Food Safety Day events in the cities of Kebbi and Sokoto, where project participants and local champions took part in road walks, radio interviews, training, and sensitization events.

In Ethiopia, a market celebration event in Hawassa city preceded World Food Safety Day, bringing together hundreds of market stakeholders for a morning of dance, drama, speeches, and Question and Answer sessions. On World Food Safety Day itself, key stakeholders from Hawassa city were invited to commemorate the Day by raising food safety awareness, promoting collective action approaches to improve food safety in traditional markets, and advocating for practices to prevent and manage unexpected food safety incidents.

All in all, World Food Safety Day 2024, provided the perfect platform for GAIN to share its work on food safety, and continue to build its relationships with global food safety partners.

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World Food Safety Day events this year

Feed The Future EatSafe project
EatSafe work in a traditional market in Ethiopia
GAIN’s policy work around food safety
EatSafe work in traditional markets in Nigeria
GAIN Discussion Paper
Podcast with Food Safety News
USAID’s Kitchen Sink podcast
Food Safety: The Biggest Development Challenge You’ve Never Heard Of video

Photo © The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition