The CCAFRICA Region - Regional Coordinator Uganda
The ‘Coordinating Committee for Africa’ was established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 1972 with a mandate to “exercise general coordination in the preparation of standards relating to the region of Africa”. The committee held its first meeting at FAO in 1974, with 19 countries in attendance.
As the new regional coordinator begins their term, the Agreement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which came into effect in May 2020, has reinforced the need for an efficient and effective system for managing sanitary and phytosanitary measures, in particular food safety, across the continent as its borders open for trade.
The regional coordinator is based in the Uganda National Bureau of Standards, a statutory body under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Co-operatives which oversees, as part of its mandate, the promotion and use of standards.
As regional coordinator, Uganda intends to engage closely with countries via surveys, webinars and workshops to identify needs and emerging issues, create awareness of priority food safety issues and of Codex standards. A pilot study will also explore the food safety situation in broader terms across the region. By strengthening engagement with regional bodies such as the African Union, the African Organisation for Standardisation and the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, Uganda also aims to enhance advocacy work in the region.
CCAFRICA Coordinator
All information on Codex is public and free.
For regional enquiries contact:
CCAFRICA Secretariat
Uganda National Bureau of Standards Plot 2 - 12, Bypass Link, Industrial
& Business park, Kyaliwajala road,
P.O Box 6329 Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256 (041) 7333250 / 0417333251 / 0417333252
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.unbs.go.ug
Food safety training challenges future thinking
Experts from six African countries attended a workshop in Nairobi, Kenya earlier this year, to build national capacity on foresight related to food safety and ultimately to launch a process to better identify and prepare for food safety issues.
The workshop, designed by FAO familiarized participants with foresight techniques that will enable them to reflect on the changing nature of food safety within food systems and support the identification of emerging food safety issues in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Over four days participants explored new techniques such as visioning and backcasting and reviewed seven questions that will enable them to design a draft plan for a national process on food safety foresight.
“This process that has been started should also feed into the Codex regional meetings in 2019,” said Cornelia Boesch FAO Food Safety and Quality Officer, emphasizing that all member countries need to be ‘foresight-literate’. “We now have a dedicated group of professionals committed to interact with us and who can provide us with insights on upcoming food safety issues in their country,” she said.
Participants expressed appreciation for learning how to design more effective strategies based on imagined desired futures, explore alternative futures and challenge default futures.
“The workshop on Food Safety Foresight was a game changer for me. In addition to addressing food safety issues, the foresight concept opened a whole new horizon with respect to how I now perceive life,” said Abel Atukwase from Makerere University, Uganda.
“I like the practical step-by-step nature of the workshop and all content was really valuable and relevant to my job. I am bursting with ideas of improving food safety in our country,” said Anita Kamanda from the Ministry of Health of Kenya.
FAO defines foresight as “an approach and a process which requires broad thinking and results in the generation of multiple scenarios and ideas. Some of these ideas must then be further developed and implemented into policy and subsequent action”.
Applying foresight allows institutions and organizations to improve policy preparedness and their ability to anticipate emerging and critical risks.
“It is essential for standard setting to be continuously challenging the status quo. We see great opportunities for foresight in Codex also in areas such as strategic planning”, said Codex Secretary Tom Heilandt.
Read more online about food safety at FAO.
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