Follow-up Addis Ababa WS: COP8 in Curitiba, Brazil

Side Event on 28 March 2006:
Review of First Experiences, Discussion of Needs
and Defining Steps Forward

This side event was organized by DGIS and GTZ to present and discuss the outcome of a ABS capacity-building needs assessment, which was initiated by the organizers of the side event during the recent meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-Sharing in Granada, Spain. There the organizers presented results and recommendations of the first Regional ABS Capacity-Building Workshop for Eastern and Southern Africa, held from 2 to 6 October 2005 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Furthermore, the Dutch-German ABS Capacity-Building Initiative for Africa was announced and presented for the first time. The ABS capacity-building needs assessment was intended to provide guidance for the concept and planning of the initiative according to the needs of African stakeholders, including Government authorities and local communities.

About 70 participants of COP8 attended the side event, among them representatives from national governments, UN agencies, intergovernmental (such as IUCN) and non-governmental organisations, indigenous and local community groups as well as academia and industry. The side event was structured as follows:

Introduction

Background of the Dutch-German ABS Capacity-Building Initiative for Africa
by Hans Wessels, DGIS:

• ABS situation with focus on Africa
• Capacity-building requirements
• Objectives of the capacity-building initiative

Overview of the first Regional ABS Capacity-Building Workshop for Eastern and Southern Africa (2.-6.10.2005, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) including brochure launch.

Anne Angwenyi, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Kenya, highlighted in her overview various bioprospecting examples such as the commercialization of the Devil’s claw, used as an anti-inflammatory agent which has enabled communities in Botswana to improve their livelihoods despite the absence of an ABS agreement. She further mentioned an Ethiopian-Dutch ABS agreement regarding teff, an endemic cereal crop, which has been concluded between the Ethiopian Institute for Biodiversity Conservation and a commercial breeder. She highlighted that the participants at the Addis Ababa workshop called for clear-cut definitions and the avoidance of duplication of regional capacity building efforts in addition to the need for regionally harmonized ABS regulations.

For the full text of the Addis Ababa workshop recommendations refer to  UNEP/CBD/WG-ABS/4/INF/9. The brochure summarizing the bioprospecting cases and examples of ABS regulations presented in Addis Ababa is available in the documents section of this website.

Presentation and discussion of an ABS capacity-building needs assessment in Africa

Kabir Bavikatte, Protimos, elaborated on the outcome of the ABS capacity-building needs assessment which was conducted between January and March 2006. He explained that 17 out of 52 African countries participated in the assessment mostly through Government authorities but some NGOs as well.

He summarized the results as follows:

• Capacity-building for ABS is an “urgent” issue for all stakeholders.
• High importance is given to the local and the national level: Two thirds of the respondents consider capacity-building at the local level at least as “important” whereas almost all respondents consider capacity-building at the national level as “important”.
• Capacities to develop national legislation and implementing regulations for such legislation are “urgent” and “indispensable” issue. This includes regulations on intellectual property rights, but also regional harmonisation – cross-border issues –, transparency and more involvement of all stakeholders are considered as “important”.
• Human resource development is “urgent”. Most “important” issues are capacities for the implementation of ABS regulations and awareness raising, including CHM and public information.
• Negotiation skills are “indispensable”, information management skills “important” but both skills are not an “urgent” requirement, whereas legal skills and technical skills were hardly mentioned at all.
• The monitoring and evaluation of ABS cases is considered as “important” and “urgent” issues.
• Capacity-building for conducting inventories of biological and genetic resources as well as traditional knowledge is “important” and “urgently” required.
• Screening, marketing and taxonomy are the most important and urgently required techniques.
  

Elements for the Dutch-German ABS Capacity-Building Initiative

Dr. Andreas Drews, GTZ, explained that the initiative is initially planned for three years. At the beginning the regional focus will remain on Eastern and Southern Africa, but the other regions will be included soon, as a strong demand for ABS capacity-building has been articulated by the French speaking countries in Central and Western Africa. Based on previous experiences of GTZ in Africa as well as other regions and the results of the capacity-building needs assessment the organizers are proposing the following elements to shape the initiative:

• Multi-stakeholder workshops – e.g. follow-up on bioprospecting cases, updates on legislation/regulations, needs oriented topics
• Issue-focused / stakeholder-focused trainings – e.g. negotiation skills, legal issues, outreach approaches, monitoring, project planning and design
• Peer-to-peer knowledge exchange – e.g. local-local learning exchange, govt.-govt. on-the-job exchange
• Virtual platform for information exchange – e.g. African knowledge base (documentation of bioprospecting cases, updates on legislation/regulations), finally serving as the regional ABS CHM
• ABS best practices – e.g. facilitating fair and equitable ABS show case projects (North-South PPP)
• Regional background studies – e.g. analyses and approaches for implementing current and future elements of the international regime in the African context; options for regional harmonization
• Side-events at relevant meetings – e.g. exchange with the international negotiation process and other regions
  

Discussion with participants on the feasibility of the capacity-building initiative

Moderated by Dr. Andreas Drews, GTZ

The discussion round generally gave a positive feedback on the planned capacity-building initiative. Furthermore, one participant noted that Devil’s claw had been commercialized already in the 1950’s and raised the issue of retrospective ABS. Another participant observed that in many African countries lack of community cohesion has allowed inappropriate access without prior informed consent based on mutually agreed terms.

Film preview: Teff – an Ethiopian-Dutch Bioprospecting Case

To conclude the side event a 10 min documentary of an Ethiopian-Dutch bioprospecting case was shown, which was aired by German TV in the ZDF/3sat science magazine “nano” during COP8 as an illustration of the issues under discussion in Curitiba.

Contact details:

Anne Angwengi:  anne_angwengi@no-spam.alumni.tufts.edu;  www.nema.go.ke

Kabir Bavikatte:  kabir.bavikatte@no-spam.protimos.org ;  www.protimos.org

Dr. Andreas Drews:  andreas.drews@no-spam.gtz.de;  www.gtz.de/biodiv

Hans Wessels:  hans.wessels@no-spam.minbuza.nl;  www.minbuza.nl

Further information:

 www.iisd.ca/biodiv/cop8/enbots/28mar.html

List of participants – ABS Side Event

Additional ressources

	enbots0908e.pdf ENB on the spot, see pages 2/3	2.5 MB
	ABSCuritiba_A3Poster.ppt	2.3 MB
	ABSAfrica_Cases.pdf Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) in Africa: Cases of bioprospecting and ABS legislation in Eastern and Southern Africa	1.0 MB