Pilot work in Uganda: testing Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis approach for food safety decision making

An extensive food safety situation analysis was carried out and five food safety issueswere identified as priorities for case studies:

• Brucella spp. in dairy products
• Aflatoxins in maize
• Acute diarrhoea in children under 5
• Methanol in unregulated alcohol
• Taenia solium (cysticercosis) in pork

Gender sensitive approach

The program’s mid-term evaluation recognized that the food safety work in Uganda was a good example of a gender sensitive approach because it accounted for:

• the impact of food safety risks on vulnerable groups such as children under 5 and pregnant women;
• varying levels of exposure to food- borne illnesses among men, women and different age groups (through sex and age disaggregated data); and
• the impact of food safety on men and women’s market access and livelihoods, etc.

Working with partners and stakeholders

The main counterpart for the pilot work is the Ministry of Health in Uganda. However, representatives from the government, private sector and academia also participated actively. Involving all these groups, when looking at food safety risks, is important because:

• the best approaches require input from a range of stakeholders; and
• they should understand the value of considering multiple criteria when making food safety decisions.

Regional work

Taking Uganda as a starting point, pilot work will also take place at the regional level in the East African Community (EAC) and in Ethiopia. The first sub-regional workshop was successfully held in Kampala from 21 to 24 April 2015. The workshop gathered the experts from various backgrounds regarding health, trade and food security from the EAC and Ethiopia, in order to exchange knowledge and experience on the status of food safety decision making in the region and the way forward.