COMESA in Pursuit of Regional Harmonization of Biosafety Policies

The Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA), a specialized agency of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in collaboration with the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS) and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) AfriCenter held a regional workshop on biosafety for COMESA member states on 19-20 April in Nairobi, Kenya.

Up for discussions were the draft regional biosafety policies and guidelines for the COMESA region which were developed at the request of the COMESA Ministers of Agriculture. The policies and guidelines cover commercial planting of genetically modified (GM) crops, trade in GM products, and emergency food aid with GM content. A communication strategy and a Biosafety Road map for the COMESA region was also presented.

At the end of the workshop, a communiqué containing the following recommendations was released for consideration by COMESA:

• Endorse the revised harmonized regional draft policies and guidelines on GM planting, trade in GM products and emergency food aid with GM content that incorporate stakeholders' comments.
• Institutionalize a Regional Biosafety and Centralized GMO Risk Assessment Desk.
• Endorse the draft Biosafety Roadmap and urge COMESA to sensitize, identify gaps and support implementation in Member States.
• Endorse the draft Communication Strategy and urge COMESA to operationalize it in alignment with its short- and long-term programs.
• Commit resources to support operations of the Panel of Experts and the GMO Risk Assessment Subcommittees.
• Develop with partners long-term biotechnology/biosafety programs to implement the harmonization agenda.

Additional details may be obtained by emailing Dr. Getachew Belay, senior biotechnology policy advisor, ACTESA/COMESA at gbelay@comesa.int