Validation Workshop on AU Guidelines for the Coordinated Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on ABS

August 11, 2014 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia- The Department of Human Resources Science and Technology assembled a group of experts in the field of access and benefit sharing (ABS) of genetic resources to discuss and validate the draft African Union Guidelines for the Coordinated Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on ABS. The meeting was composed of the African Group of negotiators on ABS/ ABS Focal points, experts from academia and international research organizations, representatives from the regional economic communities, representatives from the Secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and representatives of Indigenous and Local Communities.

The meeting is aimed at discussing the AU Coordination Guidelines which is composed of two sections namely a Policy Framework and a technical/ Step-by-step Guide. It is anticipated that the meeting validates the AU Coordination Guidelines and proposes the Policy Framework for adoption of the Fifteenth ordinary session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment scheduled to take place in Egypt in September 2014.

The AU Coordination Guidelines are aimed to provide policy and practical guidance to Member States on how national ABS systems can be implemented in a regionally coordinated manner, consistent with the provisions of the Nagoya Protocol on ABS. The Guidelines establish a coordinated and cooperative regional approach to preventing misappropriation of African genetic resources and traditional knowledge associate to these whilst avoiding misappropriation. Likewise the AU Guidelines encourage utilisation of Africa’s genetic resource and traditional knowledge assets in ways that support regional objectives and strategies on human resource development, technology transfer, scientific and technical capacity building, food security and economic growth, while encouraging conservation and sustainable use of natural and human capital, including the rights of ILCs

Finally the AU Coordination guidelines are believed to commence a process of establishing common African ABS standards, particularly for benefit sharing of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.

For further information contact
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: dinfo@african-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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