G/SPS/GEN/1643  
 
3 October  2018 
(18-6096) Page: 1/5 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
OUTLOOK ON ECOWAS IM PLEMENTED SANITARY A ND PHYTOSANITARY ACT IVITIES 
DURING THE PERIOD OF  AUGUST  – OCTOBER 2018  
COMMUNICATION FROM E COWAS -USAID SENIOR S ANITARY  
AND PHYTOSANITARY (S PS) STANDARDS ADVISO R 
The followi ng communication, received on 2 October  2018, is being circulated at the request of 
the Economic Community of West African States  (ECOWAS).  
 
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1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  The USAID/West Africa Regional Mission works to support the Economic Community of West 
African States (ECOWAS) to advance their  vision to create an economic union and common market. 
In line with this objective ECOWAS is implementing many agreements designed to support the free 
movement of goods and people throughout the region. In standards, a USAID/West Africa: Cost 
Reimbursement  Implementation Letter no 2 was signed between CILSS and USAID/West Africa. It  is 
through this agreement focus will be on Sanitary and  Phytosanitary (SPS) standards.  
1.2.  With reference to the approved 2018 -2019 work plan and in view of improving and 
strengthen ing SPS activities in the ECOWAS region the following activities were implemented during 
the period of August -October 2018 . 
2  PLANT HEALTH AND PLA NT PROTECTION  
2.1.  The recent introduction of the fall armyworm (FAW) as well as the discovery of the new alien 
invasive pest identified in West Africa and its growing threat to agriculture and food security have 
caused much concern in about 44 countries in the sub -Saharan region including 15 West African 
countries. The FAW is a crop-destroying worm and can cause high da mage to maize, rice, sorghum, 
vegetables. These attributes have made the control of FAW a challenging task. There have been 
efforts to sensitize, build capacity for the  pest identification, knowledge  sharing and a study tour. 
Overall, development of manage ment options has mobilized international experts and the national 
capacities of affected countries and raised general attention to caterpillar attacks on various crops.  
2.1  Joint monitoring mission FAO -ECOWAS -CILSS from August to October 2018  
2.2.  It is in this lin e that a joint monitoring mission was initiated between FAO -ECOWAS -CILSS to 
visit five countries including Togo, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Cabo Verde in West Africa. 
The overall objective of this monitoring mission is to make available to FAO relev ant information 
that can be used to make rapid arrangements to anticipate risks to food security and thus to inform 
preparedness and response interventions. Specifically, the mission will have to:  
• Closely monitor through the regular provision (once or twic e a month) of information on 
FAW while following all the countries in the region in order to k eep the situation under 
control;  
• Conduct assessment/ awareness of country office and government capacity in terms of data 
collection, coordination and response ; 
• Update prevalence information;  G/SPS/GEN/1643  
 
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  • Train extension officers on the use of Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning System 
(FAMEWS) ; 
• Develop /update dashboards ; 
• Evaluate the situation and propose a plan for impact assessment ; 
• Propose strategic actions to be impl emented in the short term (October 2018  - September 
2019).  
2.3.  Key findings were:  
• The preval ence rate of FAW remains high; h owever, the damage is limited in some farms 
due to treatment (20 to 100% depending on the localities) ; 
• In general, in all the visited countries, the losses are huge and the economic and so cial 
consequences are important;  
• Sensitization/dissemination of information and practices remains limited ; 
• Few resources have been allocated to research , which is essential for sustainable FAW 
control. Even the few research actions carried out have not yet identified the effective 
molecules for FAW control;  
• The use of pesticides is generally uncontrolled and constitutes a real public health concern ; 
• There are still no Famer Field Schools (FFS)  (except Bu rkina Faso), crucial for  a sustainable 
integrated fight;  
• There is no reliable monitoring mechanism and therefore the information is not consistent , 
which poses a real problem of coordination of a ctivities at the national level;  
• The mapping of stakeholders involved in FAW management is not yet done and the 
coordination remains weak ; 
• The national t ask force is not yet formalized in most of visited countries and no road maps 
have been drawn and this makes the imp lementation of actions difficult;  
• FAW control se ems not to be a government priority in most visited countries ; 
• The ongoing activities are mainly supported by FAO -TCP, therefore they cannot be 
sustainable without additional funding ; 
• Extension services are desperately short of resources for the implementa tion of their 
activities, including the monitoring of producers as well as the difficulties in dissemina ting 
information on the ground.  
2.4.  Following the above findings, the subseq uent recommendations were made:  
• Mapping all the actors involved in the FAW contr ol; 
• Formalize the national task force and develop its roadmap including its actions plan and 
budget, building the capacity of its members ; 
• Advocate with decision makers for prioritizing FAW control and for research funding ; 
• Immediate replication/disseminat ion of FAMEWS training at the decentralized level and 
supply of trained staff with equipment needed for real -time monitoring and transmission of 
the collected information ; 
• Strengthen communication and awareness -raising actions on FAW at all levels, includi ng the 
dissemination of training and information on increased surveillance, the use of local best 
practices etc. ; 
• Strengthen/establish as a ppropriate FFS on FAW;  
• Develop a research plan on FAW in the short, medium and long term ; 
• Intensify the awareness cam paign for the controlled and even limited use of pesticides (use 
of authorized pesticides) and facilitate producers' access to approved pesticides and 
biopesticides ; 
• Undertake the impact assessment that can support adv ocacy messages and fund raising.  
2.5.  Next steps : 
• Conduct a regional refresher training, experience sharing and feedback for the technical 
cooperation programme ( TCP) focal point and the country contact person for the proper 
management of FAW and best practices ; 
• Conduct impact assessment of FAW man agement and development of the dashboard in the 
pilot countries including Burkina Faso and Guinea;  
• Ensure a regional meeting for the coordination of research actions ; 
• Establish a network or information sharing platform within countries ; 
• Establish an intern al coordination committee for follow -up actions with countries and 
subseque nt action  plan to be developed;  
• Carry out aggressive actions for resources mobilization . G/SPS/GEN/1643  
 
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  2.2  Regional training workshop on improving monitoring of FAW risk, prevalence and 
impact at cou ntry level: Experiences, options and ways for ward ; Lusaka, Zambia from 
18-21 September 2018  
2.6.  This workshop has been convened as part of the effort to make progress against these current 
challenges. It is designed to encourage sharing of experiences, and to expose participants to new 
tools and ideas from inside and outside the region. Participants were Southern Africa Development 
Community (SADC) member countries including Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, 
Zambia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Republic Democratic of Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Eswatini , Kenya, 
FAO, CILSS, ECOWAS. The ultimate object ive of the workshop is for country participants to develop 
draft country actions plans which add ress the challenges in the 2018 /2019 growing season.  
The specific objectives were:  
• To share ideas and experiences on FAW monitoring  tools in use at country leve l; 
• To expose FAW country focal points to key FAW being used by / promoted by FAO and gain 
feedback on suitability for use in differing country contexts;  
• To develop draft action plans for implementation of the tools at country  level during the 
upcoming 2018 -19 season.  
2.7.  Outcomes:  
• Ideas and experiences on FAW monitoring in Eastern, Southern and Western Africa shared ; 
• Experiences on monitoring tools in use at country level shared ; 
• Exten sion officers trained on FAMEWS;  
• Draft country action plans for the implement ation and use of the FAMEWS tool (data 
collection) developed . 
3  FOOD SAFETY AND CAPACI TY BUILDING  
3.1  Food safety standards harmonizati on discussion and training on U S Food Safety 
Modernization Act  
3.1.  The US Government and the African Partner States signed a Cooperation Agreement on Trade 
Facilitation, Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, and Technic al Barriers to Trade (TBT). 
The objective of the cooperation agreement is to increase exports, expand investment, create jobs 
and stimulate economic growth t hrough improved cooperation on trade facilitation, SPS and TBT 
measures. Article 2 of the cooperation agreement focuses on enhancing the technical capacity in the 
African Partner States (West Africa, EAC, et al.) for the consistent implementation of scienc e-based 
SPS measures, including promoting greater use of and compliance with international standards, 
guidelines, and recommendations, as well as good regulatory practices. Furthermore, in June 2015, 
the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was renewe d/extended for ten years, from 2015 to 
2025. In this regard, key value chains will be prioritized for trade policy and business support in 
consultation with national government entities, civil society and the private sector, in order to take 
advantage of o pportunities offered under AGOA. Private sector enterp rises interested in accessing 
US markets need to be appraised on the food safety standards requirements, including pesticide 
residues, food safety trade standards, and provisions of the Food Safety Mode rnization Act (FSMA) . 
3.2.  Harmonization and training workshops were organized from 16 -25 August, in Accra, Ghana. 
Participants were food safety officers, policy -makers, key competent authorities and private sector 
representative from ECOWAS member S tates. The objectives were:  
• To inform government ministries and private sector entities on the importance of practical 
food safety measures and their effect on compliance with international trade standards, 
especially in reference to US market ac cess; 
• To begin a dia logue between the public and private sector that can inform national action 
planning to meet SPS and food safety standards and facilitate trade (SPS and food sa fety 
harmonization discussion);  
• To provide an opportunity for participants to establish a networ k of food safety experts, 
including FSMA experts on which they may call after the workshop conclusion;  
• To train q ualified individuals to take FSPCA lead instructor training that will allow the impact 
of these first workshops to multiply to additional preve ntive controls training.  G/SPS/GEN/1643  
 
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  3.3.  Outcomes : 
• Competent authorities, food safety actors, private sector from ECOWAS member States 
sensitized on the importance of practical measures and effect of compliance with 
international trade standards ; 
• Food safety standards har monization discussion initiated and network established within the 
ECOWAS sub -region ; 
• ECOWAS regional SPS action plan 2019 -2021 developed (output 1: Governance: SPS 
activities at national level strengthened; output 2: Raising awareness and engaging 
regulat ors, private sector actors, academia on SPS issues; output 3: Regional harmonized 
SPS regulations domesticated at national level; output 4: Needed a priority list of 
commodities/issues within each category of plant health, animal health and food safety; 
output 5: Resource mobilization) ; 
• 31 qualified individual preventive controls and 17 lead instructors trained.  
3.2  Regional training workshop of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) 
member States Codex Contact Points on h ow to submit robust application s to Codex Trust 
Fund 2 , Round 3 ; Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 -28 September 2018  
3.4.  The SPS Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade, recognizes the Importance of establishing and 
maintaining confidence in the sanitary and phytosanitary measures of SADC m ember States among 
agencies that apply measures to protect human or animal or plant life or health, bus inesses, and 
consumers in SADC m ember States and in existing and potential third -party markets. The Annex 
states that for food safety, the standards, guideline s and recommendations est ablished by the Codex 
Alimentari us Commission (Codex) relating to food additives, veterinary drug and pesticide residues, 
contaminants, methods of analysis and sampling, and codes and guidelines of hygienic practice shall 
hold. The  Annex further states that the SADC s ecretariat shall , in consultation with the SADC 
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Coordinating Committee, facilitate resource mobilization for technical 
assistance to enhance member States ' capacity to implement and monitor sa nitary and 
phytosanitary measures , including promoting greater use of international standards. In this regard, 
the Codex Alimentarius Commission coordinates amongst other things, the Cod ex Trust Fund 
(CTF-2) to which m ember States can apply to get assistan ce to strengthen their national Codex 
committees and activities. The national Codex Contact Points have the responsibility to ensure that 
international food safety standards and guidelines are adopted and adapted to national systems in 
order to ensure the consumption of safe food, nationally and regionally. The SADC SPS committee 
consists of three sub -committees, namely for Plant Protection, for Animal Health and for Food safety.  
3.5.  Several of the SADC m ember States have attempted, individually, to access this  fund but to 
no avail. The reason for failure could be attributed to poorly stated proposals as well as weak project 
proposal structure s. In view of addressing this challenge, and as a follow up to a request by the 
SADC secretariat, a capacity building tra ining workshop was organized and facilitate d by the 
ECOWAS -USAID Senior SPS advisor. The objective was to train Codex Contact Points  on how to build 
robust application s for submission to Codex Trust Fund 2, Round 3. Participants were Codex Contact 
Points from 12 SADC member States including Botswana, Comoros, Republic Democratic of Congo 
(DRC), Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and 
Zimbabwe.  
3.6.  Outcomes : 
• Experience shared by Ghana Codex Contact Point on how the c ountry went about the 
application process for Codex Trust Fund 2, Round 1 and achievement so far following 
implementation ; 
• 12 draft diagnostic tool s developed (national food safety assessment) ; 
• 12 individual draft application s developed (available) awaiting further national consultation 
and finalization before submission to the Codex Trust Fund by 30 November 2018.  G/SPS/GEN/1643  
 
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  4  ATTENDANCE AT R EGIONAL, INTERNATION AL SPS FORA  
4.1.  The ECOWAS Commission were represented at regional and internationa l meetings including:  
• 2nd International Conference for Food Safety and Security 2018, Pr etoria, South Africa, 
15-17 October 2018: Keynote Guest Speaker oral presentation "Harmonization and 
application of SPS regulations and standards to facilitate trade and ensuring consumer health 
protection: Challenges and perspectives in the developing world "; 
• Mycotoxin training workshop at the University of Johannesburg, 18 -19 October 2018: 
Keynote Guest Speaker oral presentation "Awareness training on International S tandards 
Settings Bodies with emphasis on Codex Alimentarius Commission ". 
5  CONCLUSION AND WAY F ORWARD  
5.1.  The ECOWAS Commission take this opportunity to thank USAID Regional office, West Africa, 
USDA, European Union, AU -IBAR, SADC, EAC and all partners and dono rs for their continuing support 
in advancing SPS issues in the ECOWAS region and beyond. The ECOWAS Commission a lso want to 
call for more collaboration, support for future implementation of actions to better address SPS 
matters in the region.  
 
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