ABS capacity development needs
Covering all regions of the African continent, 29 organisations from 21 African countries participated in a detailed assessment undertaken by GTZ in early 2006. It included a description of the current ABS/bioprospecting situation in the country and – as a basis for applied hands-on future trainings – a scheme to classify specific requirements and skills.
“Main message” of the assessment was: Almost all respondents consider further capacity development or initial capacity-building for ABS an “urgent” issue at the national as well as at the local level.
Capacity-building and development in following fields is considered as most important :
- Development and implementation of national ABS legislation and regulations, amongst others on intellectual property rights, regional harmonisation, transparency and involvement of all stakeholders.
- Human resources development is seen as “important”, especially for the implementation of ABS regulations, awareness raising of political decision makers and the general public, and the establishment and management of an ABS Clearing-House-Mechanism (CHM).
- In the longer term negotiation skills are considered as “indispensable” and information management skills as “important” by the majority of the respondents, whereas legal and technical skills were mentioned only by few.
- Furthermore, monitoring and evaluation of bioprospecting cases as well as capacities related to inventories of biological/genetic resources and traditional knowledge are classified by many respondents as important.
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Results of a pan-African questionnaire about country-specific ABS capacity-building needs. |
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