As hunger devastates west Africa's Niger and food shortage threatens millions in southern Africa, delegates to a regional conference on food safety in Zimbabwe Thursday unanimously recommended United Nations food and health agencies and the African Union take urgent steps to improve food safety in Africa.

The conference jointly organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) is part of series of global and regional events that FAO and WHO are convening to meet the needs of member countries for policy guidance and capacity building in food safety, which is becoming increasingly urgent as Africa slips down on a road to massive food shortage.

Western Africa's Niger, devastated by locusts and droughts, experienced a famine earlier this year as millions went hungry, while southern African countries, also haunted by droughts, are facing an acute food shortage that could see ten million go hungry this year, according to the International Red Cross, which launched a 27 million dollar appeal Wednesday to feed hungry southern Africa.

Against such dire backdrop, the objectives of the Harare conference, which ended on Thursday, was to facilitate dynamic and sustainable communication on continuing and emerging food safety issues important to all countries in Africa, and identify harmonized, practical and sustainable actions to address these issues.

The meeting was also to identify opportunities for improving international and regional cooperation in promoting food safety in order to protect consumers and their health and to develop positive food trade relations, taking into account the prevailing conditions in the entire food chain.

FAO food quality and standards service chief, Ezzedine Boutrif, said implementation of a proposed strategic plan on food safety to UN and the AU would improve food production systems throughout Africa, making it possible for African farmers to market their food and agricultural products across the continent and throughout the global marketplace.

"Greater opportunities for African farmers will help reduce rural poverty and raise incomes and living standards by creating jobs in agriculture-related enterprises," Boutrif said.

The conference emphasized that all areas of the food chain must be strengthened and that the various agencies within each country must continuously improve their working relationships and seek the best interests of the entire country in terms of food safety.

Several specific areas where food safety capacity building is needed were outlined, including in the education of all stakeholders in the food chain, strengthening consumer associations, laboratories and sharing successful experiences in food safety.

It highlighted the importance of strengthening all aspects of national food control systems, including enforcement of legislation as well as the need for increased funding and political.

The conference underlined the importance of basing capacity building on a careful analysis and prioritization of actual needs and linking them to available resources.

The conference also considered the implementation of an integrated bio-security approach to food safety, animal and plant health in their country, as well as the tools under development by FAO to implement such an approach.

WHO food safety scientist, Peter Ben Embarek, said food borne diseases were a serious threat to people in Africa, causing an unbearable public health burden and massive economic losses, adding that the best way for people to avoid getting sick from food would be prevention, which means ensuring food is not contaminated in the first place.

WHO estimates that some 700,000 deaths per year in Africa are due to food and waterborne diseases.

Source: Xinhua