Codex Trust Fund / Advisory Group hears how support vital for raising profile of Codex and food safety

The Codex Trust Fund (CTF) supports countries to build strong, solid and sustainable national capacity to engage in Codex work.

The Codex Trust Fund Advisory Group annual meeting took place online on 16 December 2021, hosted for the first time by the newly-elected Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Steve Wearne, United Kingdom.

The Advisory Group is part of the Codex governance mechanism and brings together FAO/WHO, donor countries other key stakeholders including the Codex Regional Coordinators. It serves as a forum to help shape the CTF programme to ensure it sets an effective, efficient and transparent path to supporting recipient countries and their projects.

The fund is currently providing support to 44 countries through 30 individual and four group projects. The CTF Administrator Michael Hinsch, WHO, reported on the programme and project implementation with appreciation for donors who had been, he said, “very flexible in allowing us to extend some grants and for the adjustment of our planning with the realities on the ground,” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several countries described to participants what building sustainable national Codex capacity means in reality. Regarding the institutional framework for Codex, “we've developed a strategic plan [which] mirrors quite well the Codex strategic plan and I think that's important for us because we are looking ahead and planning for sustainability of Codex work in the country,” said Mirian Bueno, Honduras.

Having, functional, responsive and operational national Codex structures is vital according to Hakim Mufumbiro, Uganda, Regional Coordinator for the Africa region. Codex Trust Fund projects “really try to entrench Codex within formal national structures and is of course also one of the mechanisms for trying to raise the profile of Codex within countries,” he said.

The meeting received an update on planning for an upcoming evaluation of CTF in February 2022; an independent assessment of the programme to ensure it continues to deliver its mandate and best serve beneficiaries also considering the impact that COVID-19 is having on operations.

Learn more

Download Codex Trust Fund Year in Review 2018

Visit the CTF website hosted by WHO

Main photo: CTF workshop held in Bhutan in 2021 as part of a group project involving Bhutan, India and Nepal