The Draft Medium-Term Plan (MTP) is indicative of the work to be undertaken in the period and provides a general orientation for this work.

It is the responsibility of individual Codex Committees and Task Forces to implement the Plan within their own programmes of work.

The Plan is intended to be flexible because it is impossible to foresee specific needs over the five-year period covered by the Plan.

Although this means that some activities may not be undertaken or completed in the period, it also should not restrict work being undertaken on new activities as required.

The Codex Commission at its 24th session (2001) had amended and adopted the Strategic Framework, including the Strategic Vision Statement.

It had also agreed that the draft had also agreed that the draft Medium-Term Plan would be revised by the Secretariat in the light of the decisions of the 24th Session and the comments received, and that it should include cost estimates to determine whether the objectives could be met within achievable resources. The revised MTP had been circulated in August 2001 and revised in the light of the comments for consideration by the 50th session o f the Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee noted that Regional Committees would have an opportunity to contribute to the development of the MTP that would be subsequently considered by the next regular sessions of the Executive Committee and the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Executive Committee noted that as a result of the Codex Evaluation, further changes might be required to the MTP and that this would have to be addressed prior to its finalization in the next session of the Commission.

Further information may be found in Understanding the Codex Alimentarius located on the Codex website at:
www.codexalimentarius.net or from the Codex-India Training Manual.