Selection of African Institutions (Food Safety Laboratories) for Designation as African Union Collaborating Centres for Food Safety

Introduction

The Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) is a specialized technical office of the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA) of the African Union Commission (AUC). AU-IBAR’s mandate is to support and coordinate the utilization of livestock, fisheries and wildlife as resources for both human wellbeing and economic development in the Member States of the African Union. One of the mandates of AU-IBAR is to contribute to the development of relevant standards and regulations and enhance compliance by Member States.

Africa is endowed with vast agricultural resources. In many African Union Member States, agriculture is the largest contributor to GDP. Proper utilization of such agricultural resources will contribute significantly to improved food security, nutrition, and increased livelihoods through enhanced trade in food commodities. Despite the potential of Africa’s agricultural sector, many countries have not been able to take full advantage of this opportunity. One of the main reasons for this is the inability of African food commodities (raw or processed) to comply with regulatory standards of both the local and export markets. Moreover, capabilities to effectively assess the safety and quality of food is limited in some countries. Food contamination by pesticide residues, heavy metals, residues of veterinary drugs in foods, pathogenic microorganisms, and mycotoxins have huge public health and negative trade implications as it can lead to foodborne diseases and disruption of the food trade. It is therefore in the interest of every country to have robust systems for identifying, minimizing or eliminating food safety hazards before food is placed on the market. Testing of food products is one of the important tools available to food businesses and regulatory authorities to better assess the safety of food for compliance with regulatory standards.

In the light of entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) there is a more urgent need to strengthen the capacity of the continent for improved analytical capabilities. This will be critical to assuring the safety of food traded in the AfCFTA. The African Union Commission (AUC) recognizes that food safety laboratories constitute an indispensable component of the food control system of African Union Member States in providing the scientific basis for food risk management. Availability of competent food safety laboratories is integral to the protection of the health of consumers and facilitation of the food trade. There is therefore political commitment to strengthen all national food safety laboratories in to attain acceptable threshold of analytical and testing capabilities for sound, reliable and comparable results across the Union. The AUC is determined to use all available mechanisms to provide analytical and testing methods alignment across Africa, and to create a scientific basis for harmonization of food safety standards on the continent to facilitate intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and products.

It is in this regard that the initiative to select African Institutions and designate them as African Union Collaborating Centres for Food Safety was commenced in 2018. Third Session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment held in October 2019, recognized this work and encouraged the AUC through AU-IBAR to continue with this initiative on an ongoing basis.

Objective for this Expression of Interest

The objective of this expression of interest is to select applications from qualified African Food Safety Laboratories with high level technical capabilities and credibility, international visibility, recognition, and industrial connectivity for designation as Africa Union Collaborating Centres for food safety.

Scope and Priority Areas

The priority areas hazards that contribute most to foodborne disease burden in Africa.

The African Union Collaborating Centre for Food Safety will be designated in the following priority discipline areas:

1. Pathogenic microbiological contaminants in food and feed
2. Antimicrobial resistance
3. Heavy metal contaminants in food and feed
4. Pesticide Residues and Persistent Organic Pollutants in food and feed
5. Residues of Veterinary Drugs in food and feed
6. Mycotoxins in food and feed

Application can be made for designation as African Union Collaborating Centre for Food Safety for one or more of the above-mentioned priority disciplines.

Qualified institutions are advised to note the following:

• Each priority discipline applied for will be evaluated individually, hence for Member States that will apply for more than one discipline, separate application packs should be prepared for each bided discipline but submitted as one application package for the country.
• The priority discipline being applied for must be clearly indicated and all the relevant information for each priority discipline provided.
• Laboratories will be preselected by a Panel of Experts based on the criteria for eligibility defined in this Expression of Interest and the information that will be provided by the laboratory.
• Verification visits for further evaluation will be conducted for all laboratories that will be shortlisted. Only shortlisted institutions will be contacted.
• The final results of the selection process will be submitted to the African Union Policy Organs which will make the final determination on the institution to be designated as African Union Collaborating Centres for Food Safety.

Areas of Collaboration

The areas of collaboration between African Union and the African Union Collaborating Centres for Food Safety will include:

1. Technical training of laboratory Personnel or Technicians from AU Member States;
2. Coordinate proficiency testing or inter-laboratory comparison;
3. Collect, process, analyze, publish and disseminate food safety data relevant to designated field of specialty;
4. Provide technical support to national laboratories to gain accreditation or facilitate access to accredited methods;
5. Coordinate food safety data generation and coordinate national laboratories in joint collaborative research in the designated field of specialty;
6. Provide evidence for policy support and decision making at regional and continental levels;
7. Generate information, policy briefs for advocacy in the interest of the promoting food safety as well as building evidence-based coherent African positions on food safety;
8. Provide leadership roles within the networks of designated Collaborating Centres with similar specialty and promote networking and complementarity among food safety laboratories with similar specialty.

Eligibility Criteria

The criteria to be applied in the selection of institutions for designation as Africa Union Collaborating Centres for Food Safety are as follows:

1. Should provide statutory documents such as Certificate of Registration, VAT Registration Certificate;
2. Should be located in the African continent, nationally owned and could be located in a recognized public institution, research institution or a university and evidence of relevance of the laboratory in AU Member’s National Food Control System, food safety research or educational structures;
3. Valid accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025;
4. Quality of training services (including training modules and their accreditation, training facilities, AU languages used);
5. Ability to train and handle documents in the AU languages (English, French, Portuguese and Arabic) as much as possible including capacity to provide interpretation during trainings or to translate documents in the applicable official AU languages.
6. Evidence of the quality of the required testing capacity, technical leadership of the laboratory, as well as qualifications, competence, commitment, availability of staff with subject matter expertise on priority area(s) being applied for, demonstrated proof or past records of capacity building of food safety laboratory personnel; sustainability of personal, laboratory’s activities and funding; Key Staff CVs and Certificates should be attached;
7. The institution’s ability, capacity and readiness to provide those services and affordability of the services described under the “ Areas of Collaboration” ;
8. The working relationships (evidence of partnerships/or collaboration) which the laboratory has established with other institutions at the national, regional, continental and global levels.
9. Administrative environment, sustainability mechanism and financial management system
10. Should provide the required information stated below

Required Information

A short summary of activities relevant to the domain being applied for should be included and must not be more than one page. Information on the opinion of the institution on how a Collaborating Centre for Food Safety should operate should also be included.

The following information must be labelled and submitted as part of the application package in the following order:

1. Background and introduction to the institutions [including name and address of laboratory, Name of the Head of laboratory (Responsible Official), telephone and e-mail address and URL for the institutions website];
2. Mission, Vision and geographical scope of the laboratory;
3. Legal instrument setting up the laboratory/institution, and budgetary provisions in place to assure the sustainability and functioning of the laboratory;
4. Documented proof (valid certificates) of accreditation to the ISO/IEC 17025 or equivalent laboratory quality management system, and a clear indication of the scope of the accreditation;
5. List and original reports of proficiency tests that the laboratory regularly participates in and/or organizes (for the past 3 years) in the priority discipline (s) being applied for;
6. Details of experience in testing or research on food safety hazard (include the number of tests and origin of samples whether national or external performed annually in priority area(s) being applied for. This document must be officially endorsed;
7. List of expertise and capabilities in testing methods in the bided discipline;
8. Evidence of experience in standardization and validation of analytical methods as well as list of completed research and methods development projects;
9. Evidence of the capability for timely international shipment and receipt of samples in accordance with relevant internationally accepted standards.
10. Guarantees to ensure confidentiality of information;
11. List of collaboration agreements with other laboratories, centers or organizations;
12. Details of training (include list of training modules, the scope and expected training outcomes) and consultations conducted by the laboratory in the past 5 years in the priority area(s) being applied for. The information should also include the nationality and number of participants trained;
13. List of scientific/technical meetings that the laboratory has contributed to;
14. List of reference documents which the laboratory contributed including journal article publication, submission of data to scientific advisory bodies e.g. JECFA, JMPR, JEMRA.
15. Brief description of past and present research activities
16. List of publications in peer reviewed journals in the bided discipline;

How to apply:

How to Apply

The deadline for submission is 18^th December 2020 at 17.00 Hrs Nairobi Time.

The Expression of Interest must be submitted by email to: procurement@au-ibar.org within subject: “Selection of African Institutions for Designation as African Union Collaborating Centres for Food Safety”.

Kindly copy the email to the following:
khalid.seid@au-ibar.org; kalaau3000@gmail.com; ibar.office@au-ibar.org

All relevant information must also be submitted by courier to the following address:
The Director
The Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources
Kenindia Business Park, Museum Hill, Westlands Road
P.O. Box 30786 00100
Nairobi
Kenya