Data collection to evaluate Eswatini’s food safety control system is underway
Representatives from various government institutions in Eswatini are gathering and collecting data as part of a 5-million-euro project run by a team of FAO experts and funded by the European Union to improve the food control system in the country.
The two-year project, "Strengthening of Capacities and Governance in Food and Phytosanitary Control,” is providing technical support and working with national Competent Authorities and other leading institutions in 12 Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Member Countries to build capabilities, strengthen governance and improve strategic planning around two main components: food safety and plant health.
As part of the food safety component, the FAO team traveled to Mbabane for a week in January to train a group of focal points from the Ministries of Agriculture, Health, and Commerce Trade and Industry among others on a unique tool that assesses the national food control system in a comprehensive manner. The Food Control System Assessment Tool was developed jointly by FAO and the World Health Organization to assess the entire food chain, from the primary producer to the consumer. It entails a thorough data collection process across four dimensions, specifically the policy and legal frameworks and the human and financial infrastructure of the country’s food safety control system.
High-level representatives of relevant ministries attended the inception meeting in January, where the importance of food safety was reiterated. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” said Assistant FAO Representative to Eswatini Khanyisile Mabuza in her speech, adding, “however, not if that apple is heavy with contaminants.” She thanked everyone for their presence and commitment in the effort to “ensure that apples are apples and they are not lemons.”
Food control systems are key in advancing a country’s public health and economic development and the project is working towards that goal. Its success depends on the thoroughness and quality of the data collected during this phase which is set to continue through May 2023.
Participants have committed to engage in all the phases of the assessment process, which will culminate with the development of a set of recommendations and a strategic framework aimed to improve the country’s public health and economic development.
Eswatini is the third country to undertake the project’s activities, following the island nations of the Seychelles and Comoros.
Improved food controls, safer trade, greater capacity
The project, co-signed by the Government of Eswatini, falls within the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Policy Framework for Africa developed by the African Union (AU) to spur trade among AU Member States and is implemented in close collaboration with the African Commission Division for Rural Economy and Agriculture (AUC DARBE).
The project is an opportunity to increase knowledge and technical skills among the workforce of the ministries and institutions that form part of the food control system in Eswatini and beyond.
Read more about the FAO/WHO Food Control System Assessment Tool
Read more about the Kingdom of Eswatini
See the website for the FAO Subregional Office for Southern Africa
Photo: ©FAO/Ivor Coglin