Le Comité de coordination pour l’Afrique a été créé par la Commission du Codex Alimentarius en 1972, avec pour mandat «la mise en application d’une coordination générale dans l’élaboration de normes liées à la région de l’Afrique». Le Comité a organisé sa première réunion à la FAO en 1974: 19 pays étaient présents.
Alors que le nouveau coordonnateur régional entamait son mandat, l’Accord portant création de la zone de libre-échange continentale africaine (ZLECAf), entré en vigueur au mois de mai 2020, a souligné le besoin d’un système efficace de gestion des mesures sanitaires et phytosanitaires, notamment dans le domaine de la sécurité sanitaire des aliments, sur tout le continent alors que ses frontières sont ouvertes au commerce.
Le coordonnateur régional opère au sein du Bureau national de normalisation d’Ouganda, établissement public placé sous l’égide du Ministère du commerce, de l’industrie et des coopératives, qui surveille, dans le cadre de son mandat, la promotion et l’utilisation des normes.
En tant que coordonnateur régional, l’Ouganda souhaite s’impliquer davantage auprès des pays, notamment au travers d’enquêtes, de séminaires web et d’ateliers, afin d’identifier les besoins et les problématiques émergentes, mais aussi sensibiliser aux questions prioritaires de sécurité sanitaire des aliments et aux normes du Codex. Par ailleurs, une étude pilote s’intéressera plus largement à l’état de la sécurité sanitaire des aliments dans la région. En renforçant son engagement auprès d’organismes régionaux tels que l’Union africaine, l’Organisation régionale africaine de normalisation et le secrétariat de la zone de libre-échange continentale africaine, l’Ouganda vise aussi à améliorer le travail de plaidoyer dans la région.
Madagascar depends heavily on food imports to meet its food requirements. Effective and efficient control of food imports is therefore essential to facilitate food trade on the island and to protect the health of consumers.
“Several different authorities carry out inspections of those products according to their respective competences”, said Dominique Lantomalala, Codex Contact Point, Madagascar. “Most of the time, there is a lack of coordination and synergy between these actions. Faced with imports, local industries suffer and it is not [...]
Former Codex Chairperson Mrs. Awilo Ochieng Pernet calls upon Burkina Faso to strengthen its national Codex and food safety structures during the 59th Independence Anniversary Celebrations
Mrs. Awilo Ochieng Pernet, former Chairperson of the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission from 2014 to 2017 was invited to Burkina Faso to support high-level advocacy efforts in the country on food safety and Codex on the occasion of the 59th Independence Anniversary Celebrations, which took place on 11 December 2019. The objective of the advocacy was [...]
A consultative workshop on National Codex issues was organized on 6 December 2019 in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. The main objectives of the workshop were to discuss national food control systems, including Codex, and to begin preparation of a project proposal for the Codex Trust Fund.
Mr Arefaine Berhe, Minister of Agriculture, who officially opened the session, told the Ministry of Information website shabait.com that food safety was central to survival and wellbeing and that regulating national food standard had [...]
Mabel Aworh from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria reports on a week of action.
The official 'Nigeria Antibiotic Guardian Pledge' was launched at a high-level event by Senate Committee Chair on Health, Dr. Ibrahim Oloriegbe and Chair on Agriculture and Productivity, Abdullahi Adamu.
Speaking to the Daily Trust website, Oloriegbe committed to raising awareness among Nigerians on the dangers of using human and veterinary antibiotics indiscriminately and promised to communicate in mass-messaging to educate Nigerians. “The media [...]
Plus de 500 femmes de tout le pays et plus de 1000 participants se sont rassemblés à Bobo-Dioulasso, capitale économique dans l'ouest du Burkina Faso pour célébrer la Trente-neuvième Journée mondiale de l'alimentation du 14 au 16 octobre 2019.
Les services techniques du gouvernement, en charge de l'alimentation et de la nutrition s’étaient mobilisés pour l’événement durant lequel le Comité national du Codex Alimentarius y tenait un stand d'exposition pour sensibiliser les populations sur le Codex, les meilleurs gestes et pratiques [...]
Food safety experts and officials from Mali took part in the launch of a Codex Trust Fund project on Thursday, 12 September 2019 at the International Conference Center in Bamako. The launch was chaired by Sékou Oumar Dembélé, technical advisor of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and is part of national capacity building programmes to strengthen food safety in Mali
This initiative aims to inform and raise awareness amongst all stakeholders dealing with food safety and nutrition in the [...]
The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) came into effect on 30 May 2019 after ratification by 22 countries. AfCFTA creates a single continental market as well as a Customs Union with people, goods and service able to move freely. This will be one of the world’s largest free-trade areas in terms of the number of countries, covering more than 1.2 billion people with a combined Gross Domestic Product of more than USD 3.4 trillion. One of the central [...]
FAO Food Safety and Quality Officers reported at CCAFRICA23 on a Total Diet Study (TDS) that for the first time covered a wide geographical area and examined a high number of chemical contaminants including mycotoxins, dioxins, pesticides, and heavy metals.
A TDS is an instrument to assess the dietary exposure of populations to specific chemical contaminants. They analyze food cooked and prepared as it would be by the consumer and are representative of the foods eaten by a particular local population. [...]
More than 130 participants from 31 Member Countries, 5 Observer Countries and 7 Observer Organizations are gathered in Nairobi, Kenya for the 23rd session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Africa, which kicks of the new round of regional consultations that take place every two years in Codex.
Codex standards underpin regulatory, scientific and technological capacities
Opening the meeting, the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya, William Ruto called for increased funding to programmes geared towards enhancing food safety and emphasised [...]
Actions to mitigate the potential for the food supply chain to act as a conduit from the myriad environmental sources of antimicrobial resistance to the public health problems of antimicrobial resistant infections in people generally focus on two areas. First, effective antimicrobial stewardship to reduce the use of antimicrobials in agriculture; and second, surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in pathogens in food. In the presentation of their recent research to the first side event at CCAFRICA23, Professor Alex Hughes (above) of [...]
