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Ezulwini, Eswatini - 10 December 2024. In a groundbreaking collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agriculture and Capacity Enhancement (ACE) Programme was launched in Eswatini, heralding a new era for progress food safety and agricultural sustainability. The ACE Programme, 'Governing for Sustainable Agrifood Systems: Strengthening Legislation and Building Capacity to Support Implementation, Compliance, and Enforcement,' is designed to strengthen legal frameworks and enhance institutional capacity to bolster the development and implementation of agrifood regulations and is managed by the Development Law Service of the FAO Legal Office.  

At the launch workshop, Assistant FAO Representative, Mr Howard Mbuyisa, underscored the pivotal role of robust legal structures in advancing sustainable agrifood systems and ensuring food safety. The ACE Programme stands as a cornerstone in this trajectory, emphasizing the significance of legal frameworks in strengthening food and agriculture in a sustainable manner.

At the core of the ACE Programme lies the One Health approach which is based on an integrated and holistic approach to human, animal and plant and environmental health.

Local capacity building of legal professionals, lawmakers and regulatory authorities is crucial to the ACE Programme, which, through increased understanding by these stakeholders of food safety laws, will lead to enhanced compliance, monitoring, surveillance, and the reinforcement of laws governing food safety.
International collaboration is a key pillar of the ACE Programme and will support the alignment of Eswatini's agrifood regulations with global standards to facilitate smoother trade relations and international export market access. Enhanced food safety standards can boost the competitiveness of Eswatini's agricultural products, unlocking new economic avenues for local farmers and producers. Carmen Bullón, Legal Officer at LEGN, FAO, underscored the importance of legislation to implement policy objectives and make them sustainable, and referred to the need to develop strategies to improve the compliance and enforcement of the legislation.

Entry points for Eswatini’s One Health approach are food safety regulations and climate change legislation, including instruments to enhance adaptation and mitigation measures to foster a more resilient and sustainable agrifood system. The ACE project, in close collaboration with a Project Task Team, will define concrete activities to improve the implementation of the One Health approach in Eswatini as an important step for agrifood systems transformation.

As the ACE Programme progresses, the continued support and collaboration of all stakeholders will be crucial to its success. The FAO's call for all stakeholders, partners and civil society organizations (CSO’s) to recognize the importance of the One Health approach and to support similar initiatives by partners underscores the significance of collective action in building a safer and more sustainable global food system.

Thabiso Mnisi (FAO Eswatini)