This workshop was part of the ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa, which was launched in 2006 to help enabling African states and stakeholders to use benefits generated by the use of genetic resources for biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. Background information about the Initiative and full documentation of previous workshops and events is provided on www.abs‐africa.info.
In the course of developing national and international ABS regimes, communicating the importance of ABS, educating different stakeholders about its objectives, intentions and procedures, and creating public awareness about the implications of ABS have proven to be a major challenge. A variety of tools are available regarding communication, education and public awareness (CEPA) of goals 1 and 2 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). However, experience has revealed that many of them are difficult to translate directly to ABS. This is due to the peculiarities of ABS, such as the highly complex negotiation process, non‐tangibility of many ABS issues, a plethora of diverging interests, a very unequal distribution of power among stakeholders, etc.
Efforts are therefore currently undertaken to develop ABS specific CEPA strategies and approaches, with a special focus on African stakeholders and perspectives. The overall aim is to increase the effectiveness of negotiations and implementation of ABS regimes on the international local, regional, national and levels, thus promoting fair deals which substantially contribute to poverty alleviation in Africa.
Two workshops have already addressed this issue, one in Dakar, Senegal, and one in Antsinarana, Madagascar (Nov. and Dec. 2008 respectively). They brought together a variety of African ABS stakeholders to reflect about the goals, challenges and building blocks for developing effective ABS CEPA strategies and approaches. An important result of those workshops is that ABS requires a multitude of communication strategies, reflecting the diversity of involved stakeholders, their different levels of insight into the issue and their often diverging needs and interests. The complexity of ABS doesn’t lend itself to singular, centralized communication strategies. Instead, differentiated and well‐sequenced approaches are called for. The initial step in this sequence was lobbying relevant policy makers and administrators, so as to strengthen political will and momentum for ABS.