A high-level conference on the Better Training for Safer Food programme (BTSF) takes place in Brussels on 18-19 November. The main aims of the conference are to present the Commission Staff Working Document on challenges and strategies for BTSF, to examine possible strategies for tackling the challenges ahead in co-operation with other actors and to review the BTSF Africa activities. This will help to identify how best to further develop the contribution of BTSF to global food safety and security and generate political momentum to this end.

Around 200 delegates are expected to attend from the EU, African and other third countries, African Regional Economic Communities, EU and African Union (AU) institutions and specialised offices, international standard-setting bodies, academia and other stakeholders. Participants will be addressed by EU Commissioner for Health and Consumers, John Dalli and Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, among other speakers.

The high-level meeting is scheduled for the first day and will have a policy-based orientation, whereas the second day will be mainly dedicated to technical discussion. The morning sessions are to focus specifically on the standard BTSF activity whereas the afternoon sessions will look at BTSF Africa. Each session will begin with opening remarks, followed by a series of presentations and will end with discussion and conclusions.

Following the opening of the conference, DG Health and Consumers will present the Staff Working Document. This looks first at challenges identified by the intermediate assessment of BTSF carried out in 2008. It then sets out actions, both for the short-medium and long term, which could enable BTSF to respond to these challenges.

Reviewing the past and looking ahead
There follow presentations from other Commission DGs and services on their view of BTSF. A general assessment will then be provided of the training so far and possible strategies for future activities in both the EU and third countries. The first morning is to be concluded with details of training in similar areas provided by other international donors such as the World Health Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

The second day's morning session covers similar topics in a more technical manner. The global vision of BTSF will be outlined along with the technical perspectives for both EU-based and third country training.

As concerns the BTSF Africa sessions, the first day will look at the experience gained from the seven capacity-building activities which have run during 2009-10. The viewpoint of the African Union will be given as will that of the OIE, which was responsible for implementing four of the seven activities. Further presentations will consider other training activities on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues implemented in Africa by various international bodies.

The second afternoon will see a presentation of the mid-term evaluation carried out on the BTSF Africa activities. Participants will consider the future perspectives for the programme and the main challenges to be faced in order to continue providing effective training and transfer of technical expertise on SPS issues in Africa. Following this, final conclusions will be drawn for the best way forward.