Dates: 19, 22, 23 April 2021
Time: 12:00 - 15:00 CEST
Background
In the 73rd World Health Assembly, a resolution (WHA73.5) ‘‘Strengthening efforts on food safety’’ was endorsed by Member States.
Resolution WHA73.5 inter alia called on the Director-General of WHO to update, in coordination with FAO, and in consultation with Member States and OIE, the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety in order to address current and emerging challenges, incorporating new technologies and including innovative strategies for strengthening food safety systems. Resolution WHA73.5 also called upon Member States to remain committed at the highest political level: to recognize food safety as an essential element of public health; to develop food safety policies that take into consideration, all stages of the supply chain, the best available scientific evidence and advice as well as innovation and to provide adequate resources to improve food safety systems, to recognize consumer interests and to integrate food safety into national and regional policies on health, agriculture, trade, environment and development.
Based on the needs for updating the 2002 Global Strategy for Food Safety, WHO established a new Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on food safety: safer food for better health. One of the key functions of the TAG is to advise WHO on the update of the Global Strategy for Food Safety and any other matters (implementation, monitoring and evaluation) relating to the Strategy.
The 1st TAG meeting was convened virtually from 8-10 February, 12:00 – 15:00 CET each day, to update WHO global strategy for food safety. The 1st TAG meeting agreed on the structure of the new strategy to include the role of food safety in the global development agenda, the drivers of changes for the future of food safety, the aim and the vision, and the proposed five strategic priorities. The meeting highlighted the need to foster global and regional cooperation. While recognizing the strategy should be Member States oriented, it was agreed to give more visibility to WHO’s leadership and to its role in supporting Member States to strengthen food safety and lower the burden of foodborne disease.
This 2nd TAG meeting will be organized on 19, 22, and 23 April, to follow up on discussions from the 1st TAG meeting, to discuss comments on the draft WHO Global Food Safety Strategy which was circulated to the TAG in advance of the second meeting, and to prepare for the public web-based consultation and Member States consultations scheduled in mid-May.
Scope of the 2nd technical advisory group consultation
As this meeting is the follow-up discussion from the 1st TAG meeting, the 2nd TAG meeting will continue to advise WHO on the overall structure and content of the draft strategy.
Specifically, this meeting will address the technical inputs provided by experts in between the 1st and 2nd TAG meetings and collect feedback from experts on the draft strategy prepared by the WHO Secretariat. The 2nd TAG meeting will also provide general technical guidance for implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) for the strategy.
Objectives of the 2nd technical advisory group meeting
The objective of the 2nd TAG meeting is to collect experts’ advice on the draft WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety prepared by the Secretariat and to advise on the preparation of draft 1 for public web-based and Member States consultations.
Specific objectives are to:
- Agree on the main content/structure of the strategy
- Agree on the respective roles of WHO and Member States in implementing the strategy and advise recommended actions under each strategic priority;
- Suggest possible monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for the strategy:
- Agree on the Theory of Change/logic model for the strategy
- Agree on whether the global strategy should set indicators and targets and propose possible examples
Expected outputs:
- A meeting report prepared by the WHO Secretariat
- Draft 1 of the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety ready for web-based public consultation and Member States Consultation in mid-May
Attendance to this meeting is reserved for members of the technical advisory group and invited observers.