Friday, 5th October 2007
13:30
Registration
14:00 - 14:30
Welcome and Opening
Mr. Ahmed Djoglof, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity opened the workshop, calling on participants to respect the memory of their Zambian colleague and underscored that compassion defines the way we relate to one another. He thanked the Dutch and German Governments and the government of Quebec for their support.
The African Union (AU) Secretariat representative thanked the organizers and underscored the efforts by the AU to promote ABS in Africa.
The representative of the Dutch Ministry thanked organizers and participants who contributed to the meeting. Underscoring the importance of biodiversity, shee highlighted the multifaceted nature of genetic resources. She reminded participants that developing an international ABS regime the 3rd objective of the CBD will be strengthened and expressed hope that it would be accomplished by the 10th meeting. She urged participants to enter into the capacity building initiative and work together towards an international regime.
The representative of the Government of Qubec, a representative of the Institute of Environment and Energy and Ms. Katherine Garforth, Centre for Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) also gave introductory addresses.
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14:30 - 15:00
Self Introduction of the participants
15:00 - 15:15
Introduction of the Dutch-German ABS Capacity Development Initiative
Objectives and “Vision for ABS in Africa”
Mr. Suhel al Janabi, GTZ, provided details of the programme and Dr. Andreas Drews, GTZ, explained that it is GTZ’s first workshop to provide briefing for delegates and gave an overview of the Dutch German ABS Capacity Development Programme. Professor Ekpere read out a “vision on Access to and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources’ drafted by participants of a capacity building workshop held in Cape Town in November 2006.
15:15 - 15:45
Coffee Break
15:45 - 15:15
The agenda of ABS 5: The Co-Chairs proposal
Introduction of the agenda of ABS-WG5 by the Co-Chairs
Mr. Tim Hodges, one of the co-chairs of the Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) on ABS explained the process of the 2 working group meetings and that meeting 5 and 6 should be seen as two sessions of the same meeting. He explained that after COP-8 the OEWG was made open to all delegations and that in this meeting they will challenge delegates to rethink their positions with a view to finding common ground to progress the OEWG’s work ahead of 2010.
Mr. Fernando Casas, the other co-chair of the OEWG on ABS, explained that the OEWG’s mandate is stipulated in COP-8 decision VIII/4/A and urged participants to re-read the decision so as to prevent any temptation from re-opening what has already been settled. He welcomed the Africa Group presenting one voice and explained that indigenous and local communities’ representatives will have speaking rights at the outset of the meeting.
16:15 - 16:45
Regional approaches for ABS implementation
Objectives, challenges and strategies: the example of COMIFAC
16:45 - 18:00
Key issues for Africa
Elaborating important agenda items for ABS-WG5
Mr. Suhel al Janabi introduced the next session, explaining that the group would split along language lines and would answer the following three questions:
Expectations from ABS WG:
1. Which issues do you want to see in an international regime and how do you address them?
2. What do you see as major concerns for the African region?
3. What are the appropriate instruments to address them?
Identifying further discussion needs:
The Francophone group reported back that they focused on the first and third question.
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