Objectives of the workshop

The purpose of the workshop was to provide capacity building and briefing of African delegates prior to the 5th meeting of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit- Sharing.

The workshop was a pioneering effort and the first of its kind. The Dutch German ABS Capacity Development Initiative (henceforth referred to as ‘the Initiative’) decided to experiment with running a workshop for African delegates immediately prior to a negotiation meeting. The reason behind such a workshop was to maximize the effectiveness of the capacity development and briefing as a result of it being closely linked to negotiations that would follow soon after. The ultimate goal of the workshop was to provide an opportunity for the African delegates to have an informed discussion about the main issues that were to be negotiated at the ABS WG 5 and develop a common African position.