Next Brussels Briefing no. 52 “Food safety: a critical part of the food system in Africa”
The next Brussels Development Briefing no. 52 on “Food safety: a critical part of the food system in Africa” will take place on 19 September 2018 from 09h00 to 13h00, ACP Secretariat, Brussels 451 Avenue Georges Henri, 1200 Brussels. This Briefing will be organised by the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), in collaboration with the European Commission (DG DEVCO & DG Health and Food Safety), the ACP Secretariat, CONCORD and the Global Food Safety Partnership.
To participate in the next Briefing, please register online
Food safety is linked, directly or indirectly, to the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially those pertaining to ending hunger and poverty, and promoting good health and well-being. Food and nutritional security is realised only when essential elements of a healthy diet are safe to eat. Safe food is also vital to the growth and transformation of agriculture needed to feed a growing and more prosperous world population, the modernisation of national food systems, and a country’s favourable integration into regional and international markets.
According to the estimates made by the WHO Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG), in 2010 the global burden of foodborne disease was an estimated 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people in the world – fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420 000 die every year, aggregating to the equivalent of 33 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Food safety related problems still account for almost 2,000 fatalities on the African continent daily. Contamination, diarrhoea and other foodborne illness outbreaks are still very high.
To improve the quantity and quality of food safety capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa, the Global Food Safety Partnership (GFSP) commissioned a mapping and analysis of current institutions, initiatives and resources devoted to food safety capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa. The report, “Food Safety in Africa: Past Endeavors and Future Directions” provides data, analysis, and recommendations that organisations working on food safety in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can use to improve the impact of their efforts. The report focuses on food safety capacity-building investments and activities of the international donor community and ways that both donors and African governments can better target and coordinate those investments, with greater synergy between the public and private sectors. The central theme of this report is that donors, African governments, and the private sector can work together to maximise the impact of food safety capacity-building investments and improve food safety. Everyone agrees that such collaboration is needed. The difficulty is catalysing and sustaining a shift in current practices.
The report provides findings and makes recommendations based on data from over 500 donor-funded projects and activities and input from nearly 200 experts and stakeholders. It provides advice to help donors and African governments better target and coordinate investments, with greater synergy between the public and private sectors.