African Union sets up biotechnology advisory panel

Not just GM crops: Biotechnologist in Senegal obtaining fungal spores for research

By: Kimani Chege

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>African Union sets up biotechnology advisory panel</h1>
<h4>By: Kimani Chege</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p>[NAIROBI] A panel has been set up to advise the African Union on ways of building capacity to apply and safely handle modern biotechnology.</p>
<p>The African Panel on Biotechnology includes senior scientists and policymakers from across the continent. Its creation was announced on 30 June by the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).</p>
<p>The panel will be co-chaired by a former vice-president of the World Bank, Ismail Serageldin of Egypt, and Calestous Juma, the Kenyan former executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biodiversity.</p>
<p>Its creation is "a clear sign the Africa Union is finally pushing Africa towards science-led development" says Norah Olembo, executive director of the African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum, which promotes public awareness of biotechnology solutions to Africa’s problems.</p>
<p>Juma, also director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard University in the United States, says the panel was created with the view that Africa should stop "playing victim".</p>
<p>"Africa much take charge of its future and assess the usefulness of all existing technological options for meeting its needs," Juma told SciDev.Net.</p>
<p>Launching the panel, Alpha Oumar Konare, chair of the African Union Commission, said it showed "Africa’s determination to take a common informed approach to address issues pertaining to modern biotechnology and its applications for health, agriculture, industry, mining and the environment".</p>
<p>Juma says "important relevant research is being carried out in East Africa on agriculture and in Egypt and South Africa on biomedical research. Nigeria is an important player in a variety of fields".</p>
<p>"The challenge is how to make biotechnology relevant to local needs and how to ensure that existing institutions meet this challenge," he says.</p>
<p>"More specifically, there is an urgent need to look at African universities as vehicles of community development, and one of the key technological opportunities for this is biotechnology."</p>
<p>The panel includes the Ghanaian environmental lawyer George Sarpong, Samuel Nzietchu, director of the Algeria-based African Agency for Biotechnology, and Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabhe, Africa’s chief negotiator for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which governs the international movement of genetically modified (GM) organisms.</p>
<p>Tewolde advocates a ‘precautionary’ approach to GM crops. Despite this, Olembo, whose organisation supports using biotechnology solutions, approves of his appointment.</p>
<p>"The composition of the panel is excellent," she told SciDev.Net.</p>
<p>"The tendency has been to see biotechnology in Africa narrowly in terms of GM crops — this should not be the case," said Olembo, pointing out that biotechnology also has applications in other sectors such as health, industry and the environment.</p>
<p>Olembo said the panel must appreciate Africa’s need to increase capacity to deal with all aspects of biotechnology — from research and innovation, to biosafety and intellectual property. This, said Olembo, would require African countries to increase funding for biotechnology research and development.</p>
<p>The NEPAD Science and Technology Office in Tshwane (formerly Pretoria), South Africa, will coordinate the African Panel on Biotechnology’s activities.</p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/african-union-sets-up-biotechnology-advisory-panel/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/african-union-sets-up-biotechnology-advisory-panel/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

[NAIROBI] A panel has been set up to advise the African Union on ways of building capacity to apply and safely handle modern biotechnology.

The African Panel on Biotechnology includes senior scientists and policymakers from across the continent. Its creation was announced on 30 June by the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

The panel will be co-chaired by a former vice-president of the World Bank, Ismail Serageldin of Egypt, and Calestous Juma, the Kenyan former executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biodiversity.

Its creation is "a clear sign the Africa Union is finally pushing Africa towards science-led development" says Norah Olembo, executive director of the African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum, which promotes public awareness of biotechnology solutions to Africa’s problems.

Juma, also director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard University in the United States, says the panel was created with the view that Africa should stop "playing victim".

"Africa much take charge of its future and assess the usefulness of all existing technological options for meeting its needs," Juma told SciDev.Net.

Launching the panel, Alpha Oumar Konare, chair of the African Union Commission, said it showed "Africa’s determination to take a common informed approach to address issues pertaining to modern biotechnology and its applications for health, agriculture, industry, mining and the environment".

Juma says "important relevant research is being carried out in East Africa on agriculture and in Egypt and South Africa on biomedical research. Nigeria is an important player in a variety of fields".

"The challenge is how to make biotechnology relevant to local needs and how to ensure that existing institutions meet this challenge," he says.

"More specifically, there is an urgent need to look at African universities as vehicles of community development, and one of the key technological opportunities for this is biotechnology."

The panel includes the Ghanaian environmental lawyer George Sarpong, Samuel Nzietchu, director of the Algeria-based African Agency for Biotechnology, and Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabhe, Africa’s chief negotiator for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which governs the international movement of genetically modified (GM) organisms.

Tewolde advocates a ‘precautionary’ approach to GM crops. Despite this, Olembo, whose organisation supports using biotechnology solutions, approves of his appointment.

"The composition of the panel is excellent," she told SciDev.Net.

"The tendency has been to see biotechnology in Africa narrowly in terms of GM crops — this should not be the case," said Olembo, pointing out that biotechnology also has applications in other sectors such as health, industry and the environment.

Olembo said the panel must appreciate Africa’s need to increase capacity to deal with all aspects of biotechnology — from research and innovation, to biosafety and intellectual property. This, said Olembo, would require African countries to increase funding for biotechnology research and development.

The NEPAD Science and Technology Office in Tshwane (formerly Pretoria), South Africa, will coordinate the African Panel on Biotechnology’s activities.