To address and mitigate the public health concerns and economic costs of unsafe agricultural products, the African Union Commission (AUC) has developed a new continental Food Safety Strategy for Africa (FSSA) 2022-2036. The FSSA will provide a harmonized framework to implement activities that mitigate food safety threats to consumers as well as address non-tariff barriers, such as sanitary and phytosanitary measures, for improved agricultural trade and food security. 

The FSSA will serve as a tool for the implementation of the Continental SPS Policy Framework for Africa endorsed by the African Union (AU) in 2019 to achieve Annex 7 of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement as well as broader African food security and development objectives defined by the Malabo Declaration and Agenda 2063. 

How Did it Happen?

In 2021, the AUC’s Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment (DARBE), in collaboration with its specialized technical departments, the Inter-African Bureau of Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), the Inter-African Phytosanitary Counsel (AU-IAPSC), and the Department of Trade and Industry, and SPS experts from Regional Economic Communities (RECs), International Standard Setting Bodies (ISSBs) and international and United Nations (UN) organizations, organized two, four-day consultative meetings to develop continental strategies on food safety and plant health. The effort was supported with technical expertise from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Development at Texas A&M University. 

Following these consultative meetings and several drafts reviewed by participants, both strategies were submitted and approved by Ministers of the AUC’s Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDWE) during its fourth Ordinary Session in December of 2021.

What is in the FSSA?

Broadly, the FSSA supports the establishment of science- and risk-based food safety policy and regulatory systems. The strategy recommends enhanced compliance of regulations, leading to the creation of safer agri-food value chains across the continent, a reduced foodborne disease burden in Africa and improved competitiveness of Africa’s food commodities. In addition, it calls for reduced duplication of food safety capacity building efforts, which will facilitate better leveraging and coordination of resources and capabilities to assist African countries in meeting their objectives. 

The FSSA’s six strategic objectives are to:

1. Strengthen food policy, legal and institutional frameworks; 

2. Strengthen the human and infrastructure capacity of food control systems; 

3. Promote food safety culture, evidence-based advocacy, communication, information sharing to raise consumer awareness and empowerment; 

4. Improve trade and market access at national, regional, continental and global levels; 

5. Strengthen research, innovation, technology development and transfer; and 

6. Establish and strengthen coordination mechanisms and enhance cooperation at national, regional, continental and global levels.

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Our desire as the African Union is to have access to safe and nutritious food. The strategy will contribute to addressing Food Safety, Malabo Declaration on ending hunger, tripling trade in agriculture commodities and Agenda 2063. I call for a united front on collective efforts to address issues of food safety along the value chain to ensure safe food for consumers and for trade. 

-Ambassador Josefa Sacko, African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment 

From Development to Implementation

While the FSSA was officially launched during the African Union’s (AU) online commemoration of World Food Safety Day in June of 2022, the document was not publicly available on the web until recently after being translated into all the AU’s official languages. The AUC is now working to sensitize the strategy and its objectives with stakeholders across Africa, in particular policy and regulatory decision-makers, but also non-state actors from the private sector and civil society.

In addition, the AU is working closely with RECs, AU Member States, and other partners to ensure that the strategy is realized through implementation plans at regional and national levels. Only through renewed political will, coordinated and effective resource mobilization and targeted technical assistance can the FSSA’s objectives be realized in the years to come. 

Agrilinks readers should explore the strategy to better understand how their work in Feed the Future countries aligns or could be bolstered by its efforts. 

This article was drafted by various authors from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service and The Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Development at Texas A&M University.