Publications: About ISAAA

A Message from the Executive Director

Transforming Promise into Practice

For ISAAA, 1995 was a time of powerful, positive change. We consolidated projects and initiatives. We became stronger as an institution. For us, strength means possessing the capacity for adapting to the rapidly evolving environment in which we operate. The transfer of biotechnology has been and probably always will be a most dynamic and unfolding process, which unites a spectrum of disciplines and agencies from the private and public sectors. By its very nature, this process requires that we remain flexible in the institutional structure we build and the institutional vision we pursue.

Yet throughout this year of transformation, the basic principles underpinning ISAAA's operational strategy remained valid and valuable. ISAAA has continued to reinforce its role of facilitating interactions for development and fostering trust among collaborating institutions. In the uncharted area of proprietary biotechnology transfer, the role model we develop will be important. Providing hands-on training of future leaders is a crucial part of our role, and I will come back to this central aspect of our work.

ISAAA endeavors to build sustainable capacity for biotechnology transfer in developing countries, paving the way for more projects to improve agriculture, food security, biodiversity conservation, and the environment. In ISAAA's context, biotechnology transfer is rarely a one-time event. Rather, it is the opening of effective biotechnology transfer channels; the building of trust and confidence; the first step in transforming promising opportunities into practical applications--in transforming promise into practice.

For these reasons, the completion of projects merely marks the beginning of longer-term cooperation. Our technology transfer activities should really be interpreted as technology cooperation projects, which develop the human resources and policy infrastructure for transferring still other technologies for even wider impacts. Indeed, the essence of ISAAA's work is the contribution to a more sustainable agriculture and forestry and to a safer global environment. "Sustainability" may have different meanings, depending on the context, and for ISAAA there are two critical interpretations of this term. One is that the global environment and biodiversity are inseparable from agriculture and the impact of biotechnology. Concrete achievements are required to transform agriculture into sustainable agriculture, which threatens neither the environment nor biodiversity. Another interpretation of sustainability, which is equally important, acknowledges that plant varietal improvement and policy development are dynamic processes and that sustainability means building long-term capacity in biotechnology in developing countries. The challenge is to work with the international community to sustain the transfer process.

This year, as we sought to develop an even stronger vision for the future, we began with a look at our past, with extensive consideration of the Three-Year External Review that was the focus of our 1994 Annual Report. We found in our short history many lessons and points of departure for making ISAAA even more effective in the future, and this same history elicited a resounding endorsement for the mandate that has guided us since the beginning. ISAAA's primary objective continues to be the safe transfer of proprietary agribiotechnology applications from the industrial countries to the developing world. The primary beneficiaries of this work continue to be resource-poor farmers. As this Annual Report demonstrates, much was achieved during 1995 in developing pilot projects, strengthening our support activities, and, above all, in building sustainable capacity through training.

Launching the ISAAA Biotechnology Fellowship Program

ISAAA provides the global community with a unique institutional structure that allows industry to train developing country scientists who will influence policy and ultimately decide on the appropriate role for agricultural biotechnology in the developing world. This critical dialogue between industry and developing nations will address the important issues of science, the environment, biosafety and food safety regulations, and intellectual property rights as related to biotechnology and genetic resources.

One recommendation of the External Review has particular significance for facilitating and expanding such a dialogue: the recommendation to explore the establishment of a new ISAAA Biotechnology Fellowship Fund to broaden our learning-by-doing approach. This approach rests upon the conviction that people who actively participate in planning and executing tasks develop a better understanding and appreciation of problems and priorities and are better equipped to implement new ideas and technologies.

We developed proposals for consideration by the donor community, and several donors have come forward to support a fellowship initiative. Others are expected to follow soon. All are convinced that building national capacity in agribiotechnology--by training scientists and policy makers of developing countries--is critical to achieving sustainability in biotechnology transfer and to expediting the initiation of projects through training fellowships. We believe that investment in human capital must be our highest priority. It is also an area that lends itself to support by many donors that do not participate as full members of the ISAAA donor support group.

These fellowships create a precedent in collaboration with the private sector. They are awarded to scientists from developing countries who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of agricultural research and to policy makers who play a key role in biotechnology policy formulation in their respective countries. Fellowships will specifically provide exposure to the use and potential of biotechnology applications and their implications for policy.

Consolidating Biotechnology Transfer

Another focus of this report is our ongoing projects and a brief outlook on the latest additions to our portfolio of new model projects. Acknowledging that our resources are limited, we have carefully targeted our contribution so that we may excel in a specific niche. Our principal purpose will continue to be the formulation and implementation of a modest portfolio of carefully selected, well-conceived quality projects, all of which have a high probability of delivering products to resource-poor farmers.

In 1995, we focused on a limited number of projects, paving the way to replicate the most successful ones. The implementation of projects centers on a special effort to involve all stakeholders from the outset, particularly resource-poor farmers. This is a key element in the strategy for creating the necessary ownership for the transferred technology, for ownership provides the incentive and motivation that contribute to success. It is also important to recognize that in a few cases the delivery of products to benefit poor farmers may best be achieved by first demonstrating the feasibility of technology transfer to farmers with greater resources.

The active projects feature several transgenics, a few diagnostics, and some tissue culture. (Recognizing that transgenic projects are more difficult and take longer to implement, ISAAA intentionally focused its early efforts on such projects.) As always, country needs dictate which projects appear in our portfolio. As the AfriCenter became fully operational, the balance between different kinds of biotechnology applications shifted. The near-term focus on tissue culture projects will achieve a certain balance in the portfolio of projects. These projects are easier to implement, are the natural stepping-stone from traditional to modern biotechnology, and are especially significant for Africa.

New Project Support Activities

With the rapid advances of biotechnology--its science and deployment--over the past few years, ISAAA is proposing a number of appropriate, new, high priority activities which are discussed later in this report (see "Project Support Activities: Responding to the Challenges Ahead"). It is worth first reminding the reader that we classify our efforts into projects and activities. Biotechnology Transfer Projects serve as a means for capacity building and aim to demonstrate a positive impact on agricultural production, agricultural productivity, more sustainable agriculture (e.g., through decreased use of toxic pesticides), conservation of the environment, and protection of biodiversity. Project Support Activities include our efforts related to biosafety and food safety regulatory issues and intellectual property rights, among others.

The External Review noted that client countries valued our project support services, such as the ISAAA Biosafety Initiative, and we anticipate that additional support services will be required as the needs of client countries evolve in areas of testing, adoption, and commercialization of transgenic products. To meet this developing need, we have already initiated an extension of the biosafety activities to include an ISAAA Food Safety Initiative, and we have consolidated our plans on intellectual property rights, socioeconomic studies, and biodiversity. All of these initiatives will be funded as special projects, allowing us to maintain an important balance and allocation of resources between projects and support services.

ISAAA, operating at the forefront of a new era in biological science, is the point of contact between biotechnology needs and constraints in the developing world. We have a responsibility to offer national institutions--and the farmers who depend on them--innovative routes towards sustainable agriculture and a healthier environment. By opening the way to sharing the benefits of biotechnology, our program responds to this urgent need. It offers unequaled opportunities to all partners to foster new links and to share views and concepts of the future, for the future.

Anatole F. Krattiger

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