Amid a gathering of the world’s consumer goods industry leaders at the CGF Global Summit in South Africa, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) signed a memorandum of understanding to signal their commitment to a large-scale partnership for food safety.

Using their experience and knowledge, the organizations seek to facilitate the development of large-scale food safety building projects in key regions within the global food supply network. The development program will be based on the GFSI Global Markets Program, which helps small food companies navigate the challenges of food safety and gain access to markets around the world. The first projects will begin in China, Southeast Asia and Africa before expanding to other regions.

In China, the partnership aims to scale food safety for local food enterprises throughout the country using the Sustainable Supplier Development Program (SSDP) and by establishing the China Food Safety Initiative (CFSI). In South East Asia, the organizations say their goal is to start a regional SSDP program as well as scale the UNIDO-AEON Malaysia SSDP program into a multi-country, and multi-buyer initiative.

In Africa, the project will benefit from a strong UNIDO presence to design and build a joint UNIDO-GFSI multi-country, multi-buyer project for Africa on capacity building.