The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are hosting a one-week inception workshop beginning today Monday January 24 2022, under the title “Assessment of Guyana’s national food control system, using the FAO/WHO food control system assessment tool,”. The workshop is expected to conclude this Friday 28 January 2022.
Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha and Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony delivered opening remarks at the virtual ceremony this morning.
According to the WHO, national food control system play a key role in protecting the health of consumers and ensuring fair practices in food trade. The initiative, according to the WHO, also helps to improve trading relationships and to also build stakeholder confidence in the local economy.
The WHO stated that, “when we are able to assess performance of the system in a comprehensive way, it can identify priority areas of improvement and plan sequential and coordinated activities to reach expected outcomes”.
Building upon work started in 2019, when the FAO and WHO jointly developed a comprehensive tool to assist member states like Guyana in assessing the effectiveness of national food control system, this current workshop focuses on a tool that comprises 25 system competencies, under four dimensions.
The FAO has committed to providing technical assistance during the workshop however the success of the project relies on local authorities providing the requisite information in order to complete the second stage of the activity.
More on this story to follow.
