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 ls

2. Presentation Structure
AU/IBAR
Project data sheet
Rational
Objectives
Operation
Activities directly aimed at improving participation effectiveness

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

9. 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)

10. 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

11. PAN-SPSO Final beneficiaries:
African agricultural (including livestock and fisheries) producers, market operators and agro-processors

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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 ls

17. 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 ls

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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  

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. Project Organizational Structure Project Coordination Unit
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

25. 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

26. PAN-SPSO Foreseen Activities
Panafrican CVOs meeting on Africa’s 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

27. Role of AU/IBAR: Mechanism for coordination of Africa’s 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. PAN-SPSO Dr. Medhat El-Helepi Economist & PAN-SPSO Coordinator & African Union Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU/IBAR) Kenindia Business Park Building, Museum Hill, Westlands Road P. O. Box Nairobi, Kenya Tel: (Direct)         000 (Switchboard) Cel: Fax: Private ls