Multilateral Negotiation Skills Training and the Regional Preparatory Meeting for African Delegates prior to the 7th Meeting of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABSWG-7) were held at the German House in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 4th - 6th March 2009.
Held as a Regional Preparatory Meeting for African Delegates prior to the 7th Meeting of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABSWG-7) 30th to 31st March 2009 at UNESCO in Paris, France
The Multilateral Negotiation Skills Training was organized in close partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), building on UNITARs experience with similar training activities in the field of environmental negotiations. With funding support of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment UNITAR customised the training content and methods to the ongoing ABS negotiations and took into account the work of the Expert Groups. This approach aimed to provide delegates with highly tailored training which will also provided opportunities for the further discussion and development of negotiation positions, options and strategies.
Because of this close linkage to the actual negotiations ideally only delegates or those acting in support to negotiators at WGABS-7 participated in this training.
In order to support the African Group in their final preparations for WGABS-7, the first day of the Regional Preparatory Meeting consisted of various briefing elements to update all delegates including exchanges with other relevant negotiation groups. The second day was reserved for internal coordination of the African Group to prepare the up-coming negotiations.