WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/SPS/GEN/121/Add.16 
31 July 2012 
 (12-4226) 
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  
  
 
APPLICANTS FOR OBSERVER STATUS 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
 
Addendum 
  1. An application for observer status in th e SPS Committee was received on 11 March 2011 
from the Intergovernmental Authority on Developm ent (IGAD).  Information provided by IGAD is 
summarized below. 
1. Membership (8) 
Djibouti*     Kenya*     Sudan** 
Ethiopia**    Somalia    Uganda* Eritrea    South Sudan 
 
*WTO Member 
**WTO Observer  
2. Mandate, scope and area of work 
2. IGAD was established in 1996, superseding th e Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and 
Development (IGADD) which was founded in 1986 w ith a very narrow mandate around the issues of 
drought and desertification.  In 1996 the founding  members of IGADD decided to revitalise the 
organization into a fully-fledged regional political, economic, development, trade and security entity. 
3. The objectives of IGAD include: 
 Promoting joint development strategies and gradually harmonising macroeconomic policies 
and programmes in the productive sectors, social, technological and scientific fields; 
 Harmonising policies with regard to trade, customs, transport, communications, energy, 
gender, pastoralists, agriculture and natu ral resources including shared surface and 
underground water resources;  and promoting free movement of goods, services, and people 
within the sub-region; 
 Creating an enabling environment for foreign, cross-border and domestic trade and 
investment; 
 Initiating and promoting programmes and project s to achieve regional food and nutrition 
security and sustainable development of natural resources and environmental protection;  and encouraging and assisting efforts of member states to collectively address resource conflicts 
and combat drought and other natural and ma n-made disasters and their consequences; 
                                                      
1 This document has been prepared under the WT O Secretariat's own responsibility and is without 
prejudice to the positions of Members or to their rights or obligations under the WTO. G/SPS/GEN/121/Add.16 
Page 2  
 
   Facilitating, promoting and strengthening co operation in research development and 
application in science and technology;  ac hieving development and economic growth and 
alleviating poverty;  and enhancing the standard  and quality of life of the people of the IGAD 
region. 
3. The ultimate objective of IGAD is to assist and co mplement the efforts of  the member states 
to achieve, through increased cooperation, food security  and environmental protection, promotion and 
maintenance of peace and security, and econom ic cooperation and re gional integration. 
4. Participation and/or membership in other in ternational standard-setting organizations 
(ISSOs). 
4. IGAD has applied to the World Organization fo r Animal Health (OIE) Council for admission 
as a full member, and the OIE has requested reciprocity from IGAD. 
5. Contribution to the work of the SPS Committee 
5. In its efforts to facilitate intra-regional comme rce through the removal of non-tariff barriers, 
and also to facilitate the protec tion of consumers through the devel opment of standards for goods and 
services, the IGAD secretariat has indicated that it intends to develop an SPS framework within the 
next five years.  In 2009 a Regional Policy Framework on animal health in the context of trade and 
vulnerability of the member states of IGAD was signed in Djibouti.  The framework provides a 
number of institutional provisions which specifically address the responsibilities of the IGAD secretariat and include the establishment of a Dryl and and Livestock Devel opment Centre.  This 
requires the coordination of relati ons with relevant technical ins titutions in the field of non-wood 
forest products including honey and livestock, wh ich include the African Union Inter-African Bureau 
for Animal Resources (AU/IBAR), FAO, OIE and Codex. 
6. IGAD views its role with regard to SPS issues in  four main areas:  (i) harmonization of SPS 
standards and measures between member states;  (i i) facilitation of data a nd information exchange 
among member states;  (iv) support to capacity build ing;  and (v) facilitating and promoting studies 
and research on relevant SPS issues.  The capacity of  the IGAD Secretariat to implement this role has 
been boosted by the establishment of the IG AD Centre for Pastoral Areas and Livestock 
Development, which has augmented the services that  were being provided by the one SPS expert.  To 
further enhance its role IGAD has opted to deve lop some of its actions in collaboration with 
AU/IBAR and other RECs, especially EAC and COMESA.  With a large membership of developed countries and international organizations, the IGAD Partners Forum (IPF) is also instrumental to 
IGAD`s general functioning, including within the SPS area. 
7. IGAD has several activities that relate to  SPS matters in the region including: 
 A Regional Policy Framework on animal health in the context of trade and vulnerability 
signed in 2009 by IGAD members, which rec ognised that the livestock economy in the region 
had been repeatedly affected by trans-boundary  animal diseases which cause high mortality, 
production losses and export trade restrictions.  In signing the Regional Policy Framework, 
member states agreed to launch a process of harmonization of livestock policies and regulations at IGAD level in an attempt to address their common challenges in a coordinated 
manner with the assistance of the IGAD Secretariat. 
 
 An IGAD Drylands and  Livestock Information Portal (DLIP), which serves as a web-based 
gateway information management system in order to provide IGAD member states and stakeholders within the livestock industry w ith comprehensive information in order to 
strengthen the sector, has been launched and is  operational.  The portal was established to  G/SPS/GEN/121/Add.16 
 Page 3 
 
 
  harness the vast data and information in the IGAD region and IGAD member states that was 
scattered across multiple sites, ministries and or ganizations.  The portal, which was developed 
in cooperation with FAO with funding from the Eu ropean Union, is expected to benefit from 
funding by various development partners s upporting knowledge management under the IGAD 
regional drought resilience platform.  
 
 The implementation of the EU-funded Participa tion of African Nations in Sanitary and 
Phytosanitary Standard-Setting Organizati ons (PAN-SPSO) project.  The MOU between 
IGAD and AU/IBAR provides for partnership in the implementation of the PAN-SPSO programme.  The European Union (Intra- ACP funds) has provided funding for this 
programme of approximately EUR 3.5 million.  The rationale behind this project is to 
enhance the participation of African institutions in the activities of the OIE, IPPC and Codex, 
which is presently very low.  The poor participati on is partly due to the fact that the majority 
of African countries cannot avail and/or do not ha ve qualified personnel to participate in these 
meetings, and is exacerbated by inability of the countries to have commonality of purpose to enable them to arrive at common and mutu ally beneficial positions on SPS issues.  A 
combination of these factors has caused Africa to merely be on the receiving end of SPS 
matters with little or no influence over the formulation processes of emerging standards, 
despite the fact that the standards, once set a nd adopted, impact, immensely on the continent`s 
economy.  The PAN-SPSO project seeks to provide  (a) institutional support to ensure more 
effective representation in international standa rd-setting organizations (ISSOs);  (b) regional 
and continental harmonization to enable co mmunication among African institutions through 
workshops and electronic channels so as to identify common interests and policies;  (c) 
technical capacity building to enable national institutions to receive training and technical 
assistance to strengthen their technical capacity and ability to effectively contribute to the 
process of standard setting, and (d) data and information collection and sharing. 
6. Reciprocity 
8. IGAD is willing to give access to the WTO Secretariat to the records of its relevant meetings 
and SPS-related documents, upon reque st.  It is further suggested that both IGAD and WTO enrich 
the cooperation through both formal and informal  consultations on issues of common interest. 
 
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