Summary of Input Received on the Proposed AFRAF Charter
1. Background
A proposed charter for the African Food Regulators’ Forum was developed and discussed briefly during the inaugural meeting of the African Food Regulators Forum, held from 11-13 October 2023, hosted by the National Food Safety Authority of the Arab Republic of Egypt (NFSA).
The draft Charter included an introduction of the Forum, its objectives, its membership, the organization of meetings and a proposed governance in the form of a Steering Committee.
This document offers a summary of the comments received with no attribution to the participant(s) who made such comments / suggestions.
These comments will be considered by AFRAF members at a future meeting, to finalize the Charter of the forum as a key framework, supporting its work management.
2. Summary of Comments Received
- Paragraph 3: Membership – Comments were made as to the status of the African Union Commission, as a member or observer in the AFRAF.
Suggestions were made to consider the SPS Coordinators to be part of the representation of member countries in AFRAF.
Some members objected to the paragraph mentioning the possible exclusion of those representatives that do not attend AFRAF meetings for 3 consecutive instances: “Members of the forum express their commitment to the development of the agreed upon collaborative agenda by actively participating in the Forum activities. The absence of a member from three (3) consecutive virtual meetings will be considered as a forfeiture of the membership into the Forum.“
Suggestions were made to include representation from AU IBAR and from other African structures working on areas related to food safety, into the composition of the Steering Committee or as observer in the forum.,
- Paragraph 4: Meetings
Comments received requested that the time required for documents to be sent prior to a meeting ought to be considered as 2 weeks instead of the one (1) week proposed.
- Paragraph 5: Steering Committee (SC)
Several comments were received in relation with the composition and operations of the Steering Committee:
- The position of the African Union Commission as a Voting member in the SC – Questions were raised as to whether needs to be retained, considering the forum to be made mainly of Food Regulatory Authorities.
- Questions were raised as to whether the term of office of elected members into the SC can be renewed and for how long.
- Paragraph 6: Votes
Comments were provided on the 30% Quorum needed for items requiring votes and that such number may be considered too high