Workshop review

The workshop was based on the lessons from the Montréal workshop in October 2007. The Montreal workshop was the first of its kind which was organised by the Dutch German ABS Capacity Development Initiative where the objective was to provide capacity building and briefing to African delegates immediately prior to the negotiations meetings.

At the Montreal workshop delegates stated that they didn’t need a general kind of capacity building that catered to the interests of the various stakeholders in the ABS process. Rather they wanted the capacity building that was specifically tailored for delegates who had a good grounding in ABS processes while at the same time were keen to understand and focus on the issues that were on the agenda of the meeting. The African delegates in Montreal also wanted the workshop to include a second day where they could have a co-ordination meeting amongst themselves and based on the insights gleaned from the first day of the workshop, develop a common African position for the meeting.

The Geneva workshop was designed with these recommendations in mind. The first day of the workshop focussed on the approaches to ABS from the different African regions in an attempt to develop a pan African understanding of ABS needs of the continent. The second part of the first day involved presentations and discussions on the various issues that were on the agenda for the ABSWG 6 meeting. The first day ended with a presentation by the EU representative on the position that EU would take at the meeting thereby providing the African delegates an preview of the position to expect when they begin negotiations.

The second day of the Geneva workshop focussed entirely on developing a common African position on the agenda items at the ABSWG 6 meeting. Recommendations by the various African stakeholders at the Nairobi meeting in December 2007 were seriously considered in the discussions amongst the delegates.

On the whole the Geneva workshop was a success because it responded to the real needs of the African delegates that were expressed in Montreal. It also provided further inputs into the planning of workshops for African delegates prior to negotiation meetings.