Strategic Plan for the National Medicine and Food Board.

The Strategic Plan for the National Medicine and Food Board is a Policy aimed at ensuring the quality, safety, and security of food and medicine in the country. The timeframe of the Policy is between 2013 to 2016. The Policy is based on 4 strategies: to provide a proper operational framework for food and medicine affairs; to improve and develop food and medicine regulation systems; to ensure the sustainability of the finance of the food and medicine regulation system; to monitor the food and medicine regulation system.
The National Medicine and Food Board is the authority responsible for coordination, consultancy, and monitoring of the food and medicine sectors in order to ensure the easy access to safe, secure, reasonable, and high-quality food and medicine in the country. The Policy determines the fundamental values of the Board as follows: protection of public health; production and importation of safe, effective, and high-quality medicine; production and importation of safe, high-quality, and balanced food; protection of environment; protection of human dignity; justice in public services; reduction of economic loss in the health field. The overall responsibilities and authorities of the Board include: to draft policies, legislation, regulations, and guidelines about medicine, medical equipment, food production, cosmetics, hygiene/sanitary products, traditional medicine, food and medical technologies, and chemicals; to prepare, revise, and renew the list of allowed medicines; to regulate, coordinate, and monitor all activities related to food and medicine affairs; to establish and maintain the efficient recall system for food and medicine; to determine strategic path for management of food and medicine in the country; to provide necessary resources for inspection activities; to coordinate authorities engaged in food and medicine industry; to provide a food and medicine standard system; to ensure the quality and the potential of storage and transportation of food and medicine; to settle related disputes; to provide a list of food ingredients based on Codex-Alimentarius; to monitor pharmacies; to hold research, training and scientific programs; to prevent importation of unhealthy and unsafe food and beverage to the country.
The main challenges to accomplish the strategies of this Policy, is the lack of legal frameworks, non harmonized and scattered organizational structure, and lack of financial resources. To better regulate the food and medicine sectors the Policy requires the establishment of a database of specialists and holding of training and educational programs. According to the result-based management system and in order to ensure that objectives of the Policy have been reached, the Policy establishes an internal inspection and monitoring system.