“Towards a Regional
Approach to Biotechnology
Policy in Southern Africa “
By Lindiwe Majele Sibanda
linds@ecoweb.co.zw
lsibanda@mweb.co.za
Introduction
• Southern African Development
Community (SADC) countries are
at crossroads as to whether or not
to embrace the rapidly evolving
biotechnology and related products
such as genetically modified
organisms (GMOs).
Introduction (ctnd)
• The region is faced with declining
agricultural productivity and
increasing food insecurity & it has
been argued that GMOs might
have the potential to increase
productivity, reduce costs of
pesticides and labour, reduce
human exposure to chemicals and
increase farm level incomes
Introduction (ctnd)
• Conversely, concerns have been raised
about the potential ethical,
environmental and food safety threats
that GMOs may pose.
• As a result, SADC countries are cautious
about adopting biotechnology.
• This is partly caused by the lag in their
own internal policy and regulatory
capacities for GMOs
Introduction (ctnd)
• While each country strives to establish
the policy and regulatory frameworks
on biosafety and biotechnology, few
have the capacity to fully enforce them.
• This makes the need for a common
regulatory approach and policy position
in the SADC region plausible through
setting acceptable standards that could
be approved across countries.
Introduction
• FANRPAN, in collaboration with
national nodes and technical
partners, is seeking to document a
balanced review of the technical
information needed to inform
SADC’s regional biosafety policy
choices responsibly.
The GMO Debate
Natural
Food
Production
•Declining
Productivity
•Harmful
pesticides
•Droughts
•Human exposure
to chemicals
The GMO Debate
•Increased Productivity
GMOs
•Reduced costs of
pesticides
•Reduced human
exposure to chemicals
•Unethical?
•Unsafe?
•Unfriendly to the
environment?
Overall Objective
• The overall objective is to document a
balanced review of the technical
information needed to inform SADC’s
regional
biosafety
policy
choices
responsibly.
• This project is part of a USAID
supported agenda aimed at assisting
SADC countries to come up with
feasible policy options for addressing
the challenges and opportunities posed
by GMOs on trade and food security.
Specific Objectives
1. Undertaking stakeholder analysis
in the SADC countries
highlighting opportunities,
challenges, views and positions
related to their engagements in
trade, GMOs and food security;
2. Analyzing impacts of GM crops on
farm income in the SADC region;
Specific Objectives (ctnd)
3. Analyzing commercial risks that SADC
countries are likely to face in the
destination export markets both
regionally and internationally if
permission to plant GM crops was
granted.
4. Estimating impact of precautionary
GMO principles on access to
emergence food aid and food security
in the SADC region; and
Specific Objectives (ctnd)
5. Identifying a range of regional
biosafety policy options for
decision-making on issues of
GMOs and trade in SADC
countries.
Expected Impact
• The ultimate impact is to ensure
improved food security and
incomes
in
the
agricultural
systems in the SADC countries
through adoption of productivity
enhancing technologies.
Expected Impact (ctnd)
• The project will help to ensure
that the SADC countries have a
balanced view of the costs and
benefits of biotechnology & GMOs
for better decision-making.
Target Countries
Malawi
Target
Countries
Mauritius
S. Africa
Target Countries
• The three selected countries have
active national FANRPAN networks
and very strong national
biotechnology institutions, with
functional bio-safety legislation
Target Countries
• The project will complement work
already done in the same area by
the USAID-RCSA funded Southern
Africa Regional Biosafety (SARB)
programme that was completed in
June 2003, and the UNEP-GEF
biosafety development programme
Project Partnerships
FANRPAN
National Nodes
Technical Partners
•University of Pretoria,
South Africa
•AfricaBio (South Africa)
• University of Mauritius,
Mauritius
•Bunda College
of Malawi
•BioEroc (Malawi)
•Mauritius Sugar
Industry Research
Institute (MSIRI)
Key Project Activities
Agenda setting &
constituency
building
Desk research &
analysis
Empirical data
collection
Information
dissemination
Regional
workshop
National
workshops
Time Frame
• The project will run from January
2005 to December 2006