Perspectives of ACP countries involvement in standard-setting

1
Perspectives of ACP countries involvement in
standard-setting

• Dr. Medhat El-Helepi
• AU/IBAR
• Economist and PAN-SPSO Project Coordinator
• Brussels Development Briefing on Food safety and
  health standards- CTA
• May 11, 2009, Belgium

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Presentation Structure

• AU/IBAR
• Project data sheet
• Rational
• Objectives
• Operation
• Activities directly aimed at improving
  participation effectiveness

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AU/IBAR

• AU/IBAR stands for African Union-Interafrican
  Bureau for Animal Resources
• Established in 1951 to study the epidemogical
  situation and fight rinderpest in Africa.
• Became one of the regional technical offices of
  the AU in 1965
• As other six regional technical offices, AU/IBAR
  reports directly to the Director of the Rural
  Economy and Agriculture (DREA) of the AUC
• It has the mandated to support and coordinate the
  improvement of animals as a resource for human
  wellbeing in the member states of the African
  Union and to contribute to economic development,
  particularly in rural areas.

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AU/IBAR

• AU/IBAR approaches livestock development from
  three strategic angles animal health, animal
  production, and trade of animal products.
• AU/IBAR managed to eradicate/controlling several
  animal diseases in Africa
• It does so though a number of projects and
  programs
• It runs 9 ongoing projects with a total fund of
  around 60m
• It has 4 projects in the pipeline for another 60m

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PAN-SPSO

• Title
• Participation of African Nations in Sanitary and
  Phytosanitary Standard-Setting Organizations
  (PAN-SPSO)
• Total Fund EURO 3,855,000
• EC Contribution EURO 3,350,000 from intra-ACP
  funds of the 9th EDF
• IBAR IAPSC (co-implementers) Contribution
  EURO 505,000
• Implementation Partners COMESA, EAC, ECCAS,
  ECOWAS, CEN-SAD, IGAD, SADC
• Implementation Period
• Three years started 5/2008

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Rational

• Exporting countries need to prove that the
  standards they are applying are science-based,
  equivalent, and does not constitute a barrier to
  trade.
• African countries have had it difficult proving
  that the products they export meet international
  standards and are equivalent to those of their
  developed-country trading partners.
• Most programmes that address SPS related problems
  have focused on technical issues of compliance

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• Less work has been done on promoting
  participation in setting SPS standards meetings
  where effective participation of African
  countries in the formulation of international SPS
  standards remains a fundamental problem

8
PAN-SPSO

• Objectives
• Overall Objective to contribute the reduction of
  poverty, and enhanced food security in Africa
  through greater access for agricultural products
  from African countries to international markets.
• Specific Objective facilitate effective
  participation of African countries in the
  activities of the OIE, IPPC and CAC during the
  formulation of international standards on food
  safety, animal and plant health.

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PAN-SPSO

• Beneficiary Countries
• ACP member states of the African Union that are
• Members of the WTO
• Participating in the activities of the OIE, IPPC
  and CAC
• Members at any of the eight recognized Regional
  Economic Communities (RECs)

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PAN-SPSO

• Stakeholders
• African Union Directorate Of Rural Economy and
  Agriculture (DERA)
• AU/IBAR and AU-IAPSC
• African Nations
• African Regional Economic Communities
• STDF
• Private sector
• Institutions involved in setting International
  standards (OIE, CAC, IPPC), and WTO

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PAN-SPSO

• Final beneficiaries
• African agricultural (including livestock and
  fisheries) producers, market operators and
  agro-processors

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PAN-SPSO

• Expected Results
• Result 1 African countries strengthened to
  empower SPS offices for effective participation
  in SPS standard setting activities
• Result 2 Common position of African nations in
  SPS standards at continental and REC levels
  strengthened

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PAN-SPSO

• Result 3 Technical capacity of African countries
  to draft standards and to develop arguments
  strengthened
• Result 4 Relevant SPS-related data and
  information are acquired and disseminated to
  African countries through established accessible
  information sharing platform

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Reasons Behind Lack of Effective Participation in
Producing Standards

• Access to experts who are qualified to take
  active part in scientific discussions at the
  national level is difficult.
• The high turnover among the African staff
  attending the OIE, IPPC and CAC technical
  committee meetings and the lack of follow-up
  mechanism on decisions reached during these
  meetings.

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• There is the problem of inadequate technical
  capacity and available resources to engage in the
  development of new standards and in assessing the
  scientific justifications for particular SPS
  measures.
• The lack of harmonization and net-working makes
  it difficult to come up with common policy
  options.
• Low political support
• Overloaded duties

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Weaknesses / Needs(from ISSOs point of view)

• Low budget / political support
• Improper institutional settings (representation,
  preparation)
• Lack of coordination and common position
• Lack of tech. capacities and qualified personnel
• Low Understanding of ISSOs processes

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Consequences of Low Participation

• On ISSOs
• Lack of equity
• Lack of relevance
• Lack of credibility of ISSOs and standards
• On African countries
• African specificities not taken into account
• Standards difficult to meet
• Low ownership and understanding of standards
• Inadequate implementation of standards

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Activities aimed directly at strengthening the
participation of African Nations

• Facilitate identifying SPS issues of continental/
  regional/national interest and provide analysis
  of related SPS standards to facilitate the
  formulation of common position and regional
  strategies for attendance at ISSOs.
• Organize at least one annual consultation meeting
  for Directors of Food Safety, Veterinary Services
  and Plant Protection to share ideas and
  information prior to the OIE, IPPC and Codex
  standard-setting meetings.
• Identify experts in particular SPS fields to
  provide training and technical expertise on
  commenting on draft standards to national
  representatives and on developing standards.
• Organize at least one annual consultation meeting
  for Directors of Food Safety, Veterinary Services
  and Plant Protection to share ideas and
  information prior to the OIE, IPPC and Codex
  standard-setting meetings

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Activities aimed directly at strengthening the
participation of African Nations (Cont.)

• Facilitate identifying SPS issues of continental/
  regional/national interest and provide analysis
  of related SPS standards to facilitate the
  formulation of common position and regional
  strategies for attendance at ISSOs.
• RECs organize training workshops on the use of
  science-based methods and development of drafts,
  discussion papers, scientific arguments
  (comments and revisions) in standard-setting.

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Activities aimed directly at strengthening the
participation of African Nations (Cont.)

• Support national training by selected
  representatives
• Facilitate development, drafting standards,
  commenting on draft standards and reviewing
  existing standards in areas of interest to
  African countries

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Activities aimed directly at strengthening the
participation of African Nations (Cont.)

• Set up an integrated database for SPS related
  data by upgrading the current ARIS database in
  IBAR
• Produce SPS updates on a bi-annual basis
  containing information on relevant SPS issues
  regarding animal and plant production and food
  safety. These updates will provide simplification
  of relevant articles of OIE, CAC and IPPC Codes
  and avail these to countries for use by their
  participants
• Compile research results and scientific
  information related to most relevant standards
  and produce briefings on each of them  

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PAN-SPSO Implementation modalities (1)

• IBAR and IAPSC are co-implementers providing the
  technical guidelines for the implementation of
  the project.
• The day-to-day management of the project will be
  undertaken by the Project Coordination unit
  (PCU). The PCU consist of the project
  Coordinator, Food Safety Expert, relevant
  technical staff from IBAR and IAPSC,
  Administrative Assistant.

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PAN-SPSO Implementation modalities (2)

• 7 RECs (COMESA, EAC, ECCAS, ECOWAS, CEN-SAD,
  IGAD, SADC) are partners, implementing a number
  of activities at the REC level.
• RECs will assign designated focal point who will
  be responsible for formulating a detailed annual
  work plan to be submitted to the PCU, and will be
  in charge of the implementation of the activities
  approved.
• RECs will be working closely with member states
  to ensure achieving the expected results.

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Project Organizational Structure
African Union (DREA)
Project Steering Committee
AU/IBAR Project Coordination Unit Project Support
Unit
STDF
Phyto-Sanitary Unit IAPSC, Yaoundé
Zoo-Sanitary Unit IBAR, Nairobi
Info flow
7 RECs
Member States
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Defining Guidelines

• The project is working closely with ISSOs, as
  well other organizations such as STDF, FAO and
  USAID, to build synergies, avoid duplication of
  efforts aimed at improving the participation of
  African countries in the activities of ISSOs
  organizations and to make advantage of regional
  meetings and already existing databases, ToRs and
  manual training.
• The project highly support RECs to coordinate the
  actions of African countries during the
  activities of ISSOs, giving more focus on
  building the capacity of RECs. RECs-based
  activities should take into consideration the
  variation in SPS level among RECs and the RECs
  ongoing programs.
• PAN-SPSO focuses its activities into the
  following themes
• a- Building capacity of RECs secretariats and
  countries
• b- Encourage having common position among
  African countries in ISSOs activities
• c- Encourage establishing national SPS
  committees
• d- Strengthening SPS data and information share
  among African countries

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PAN-SPSO Foreseen Activities

• Panafrican CVOs meeting on Africas coordinated
  position on animal health standards
• Draft ISPM workshop
• Training of experts and RECs staff
• Training of national delegates to ISSOs at
  regional level
• Training of national staff at country level
• Promoting SPS national committees
• Support RECs to apply for observer status with
  ISSOs and WTO
• Support the participation of RECs in the
  attendance of WTO-SPS and ISSOs meeting
• Extend the ARIS 11 to include data on plant
  health and information on food safety

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Role of AU/IBAR Mechanism for coordination of
Africas position on animal health standards

• Secretariat at IBAR (PAN-SPSO then IBAR)
• 2 CVOs annual meeting April, November,
  institutionalized, PAN-SPSO support for 2 years
• Expert consultative group

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• Secretariat requests contribution by African
  experts (to be identified) for groups of issues
  on proposed amendments (September and March
  meetings)
• Proposals of comments/positions are circulated to
  CVOs for endorsement before meetings
• Common position(s) circulated and submitted by
  countries

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• CVOs meetings finalize common position on
• Decisions for adoption at general session (May)
• Comments on standards proposed for new cycle
  (August, December)
• Identification of new issues to be proposed for
  committees or ad-hoc groups
• Nomination of experts to represent Africa in
  different technical committees

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PAN-SPSO Dr. Medhat El-HelepiEconomist
PAN-SPSO Coordinator African Union
Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources
(AU/IBAR)Kenindia Business Park Building, Museum
Hill, Westlands RoadP. O. Box 30786-00100Nairobi
, KenyaTel 254 20 3674 203 (Direct)      
254 20 3674 000 (Switchboard)Cel 254
0736161034Fax [phone]Email
medhat.elhelepi_at_au-ibar.orgPrivate email
medhat.magdi_at_gmail.com