WHAT: The Department of Agriculture and Rural Economy (DREA), through its program, the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA), is organizing a two-day training workshop on “Strengthening Food Safety Capacity for Reporting in the Biennial Review”. The workshop will bring together food safety experts from the African Union member states for a comprehensive training on data collection and computing for the Africa Food Safety Index (AFSI). The AFSI is the latest, and the 44th indicator of the Biennial Report Tracking (BRT) Mechanism used to collate data. The AFSI is submitted biennially to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union on how member states are implementing the Compressive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), adopted by the African Heads in Malabo in 2014.

WHO: Dr. Godfrey Bahiigwa, AUC Director, Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture.

WHEN: 20th to 22nd May, 2019

TIME: 0900 Hours.

VENUE: African Union Headquarters, New Conference Center (NCC), Small Conference Hall 4.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The data required for the AFSI involves three sectors, that is, agriculture, health and trade. Due to the complex nature of the required data, CODEX national focal persons have been identified for training on the AFSI to provide support on food safety reporting, to their respective national teams collecting data for the BRT. Participants are focal persons from all the National Committee on Codex Alimentarius in the 55 AU member states. Codex Alimentarius collectively works to protect the health of consumers.

Journalists are invited to the opening ceremony and can also seek exclusive interviews.
For registration, please contact Mr. Molalet Tsedeke, Media Center Coordinator; AU Commission. molalett@africa-union.org; Tel: 0911 630631.

For further information, also contact:
PACA Secretariat, African Union Commission, PACA@africa-union.org, Tel +251 11551770