Upskilling laboratory experts to facilitate exports in the Southern African Development Community
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in cooperation with the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Regional Laboratory Association (SRLA), has organized a technical training for 11 Southern African National Laboratory Associations (NLAs).
Funded by the Government of Finland, the training aims to strengthen the technical capacity of food and water-testing laboratories in method validation (MV) and method uncertainty (MU) for microbiological tests.
It also aims to build technical capacity in the NLAs to supply microbiology training services to public and private sector microbiology testing laboratories in each country. This will ultimately improve national conformity assessment capacity (testing), a key requirement for the facilitation of trade and regional integration.
The training was held in the context of a UNIDO project launched in May 2017 to strengthen laboratories in the SADC region so they can offer high-quality and reliable testing services for enterprises and regulators in order to improve market access.
Twelve expert representatives from the first batch of NLAs: Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia are expected to work together on the training. Another 12 experts will be trained from the second batch of countries in March 2018.
“Bringing together laboratory experts from peer countries will allow them to share and learn from each other’s practical experience in conducting tests, facilitating spillovers and upscaling of knowledge and best practices,” said Juan Pablo Davila, Industrial Development Officer, UNIDO. From next month the training will be rolled-out nationally in relevant member states.
