The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) and ICGEB hosted a Francophone African Training Course on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms in synergy with additional partnerships to maximise results.
Dakar, 19-22 September 2022: The training workshop Francophone African Training Course on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms was organised in collaboration with the Senegalese Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development (MESD), and the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE). In addition, it included a Small-scale Funding Agreement (SSFA) between the SCBD and the ICGEB, as part of the “Korea Biosafety Capacity-Building Initiative” funded by the government of South Korea. In an act of collaboration between like-minded organisations, the workshop was further supported with the provision of a resource team member and dedicated training materials by the UNTBLDC-ICGEB-TWAS ProgrAmme of CollaboraTions with LDCs (PACTs).
PACTs is a joint programme of the UN Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries, TWAS and ICGEB for early-career scientists from the 46 least developed countries (LDCs) to exchange visits of up to 6-months at the ICGEB laboratories in Trieste (Italy), New Delhi (India) and Cape Town (South Africa) and includes a North-South scheme to provide training in biotechnology policy and regulatory science by ICGEB experts.
The workshop in Dakar was attended by participants from Francophone African countries and nominated by Focal Point of Parties to the CBD. These countries included: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. The interactive training days were designed to provide capacity enhancement for improving risk assessment (RA) and analysis as related to living modified organisms (LMOs).
The Risk Assessment training comprised sessions on national biosafety frameworks, on an overview of risk assessment, and application of risk assessment approaches to a hypothetical case study.
We are pleased to champion our North-South training initiatives on Africa Industrialisation day. Working for the development of industries in Africa on a wide scale.
