SADC Regional Workshop for Capacity Building on Access and Benefit Sharing and Intellectual Property Rights for Animal Genetic Resources (4th to 6th March 2019, Pretoria, South Africa)
© 2019 AU-IBAR. Participants to the SADC Regional Workshop for Capacity Building On Access and Benefit Sharing and Intellectual Property Rights for Animal Genetic Resources at the Fortis Manor Hotel, Hatfield, Pretoria, South Africa.Background
A regional training workshop was jointly convened by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and from the 4th to 6th of March 2019 at the Fortis Manor Hotel, in Hatfield Pretoria, South Africa, in the framework of the implementation of the AU-IBAR project on "Strengthening the capacity of African Countries on Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Animal Genetic Resources in Africa". A total of 35 participants comprising National Focal Points for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and Nagoya Protocol (NP), National Coordinators for Animal Genetic Resources, government and non-governmental officials and development practitioners in the SADC and technical and administrative staff of AU-IBAR region attended the 3-day training workshop. The SADC participants were from: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The training workshop was facilitated by the Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Sub-Regional Focal Point for AnGR for Southern Africa, Mrs Deidre Januarie.
The main objective of the workshop was to strengthen capacity on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) in the SADC region.
The specific objectives were:
- To raise awareness on ABS and IPR issues related to AnGR,
- To mainstream AnGR into the existing national and regional legislation,
- To share information and best practices and lessons learnt on ABS on AnGR and ABS Procedures and/or Mechanisms and
- To agree on priority interventions to fast track their implementations.