Gambia’s Department of Parks and Wildlife Management, in collaboration with UN Environment, organized the first national Biosafety Clearing House capacity-building workshop, in June 2018, in Gambia. The workshop aimed to provide the country’s key stakeholders with a common understanding of the format of the Biosafety Clearing House records, methods of finding information, procedures for registering and publishing biosafety related decisions.
The workshop enhanced the capacity of 18 participants from 16 different key stakeholders, including government ministries, agencies, farmers’ associations, agro-processors, universities, research institutes, media offices and non-governmental organizations on the implementation of the Biosafety Clearing House, further encouraging the National Assembly to enact the long pending draft of biosafety law.
New national procedures and operation linkages were put forward for the creation of new Competent National Authorities and corresponding National Authorized Users to expand the arena of stakeholders’ participation, especially in registering national data on the Biosafety Clearing House.
UN Environment strengthens the capacity of stakeholders to understand the common format of Biosafety Clearing House records as well as the procedures for registering and publishing biosafety-related decisions, the technical national Biosafety Clearing House responsibilities and impact on the institutional processes for creating and registering Biosafety Clearing House information and making biosafety related decisions (e.g. registering and publishing records). UN Environment supports the identification of National procedures and operational linkages to gather information to be put on the Biosafety Clearing House in line with National Biosafety Frameworks implementation and sustainability and training plan, reviewing biosafety activities, and providing guidance on potential areas of intervention in the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol in GEF7.
For more information please contact: Rami.Abdel-Malik[at]un.org
