Communication and public perception of GM crops: the experiences of South-South LA projects shaping a communication strategy.

Communicating agricultural biotechnology and biosafety issues encompasses a spectrum of issues from the factual dissemination of scientific research to societal values and beliefs. This affirms the need for deliberate strategies for biotechnology and biosafety communication to ensure consistency in messaging for the varied stakeholders. Despite remarkable progress in commercialization of GM crops in an increasing number of countries, their adoption in Africa and some Latin-American (LAC) countries remains extremely low. In Brazil, illegal introduction of GM soybeans in 2000 was an experience that has shown the importance of a solid and workable legal framework as well as a robust communication strategy. Nowadays Brazil is the second largest grower of GM crops in the world. A study developed between 2010-2012 in south-south (S-S) LAC partnership on environmental risk assessment (ERA), public perception and communication (1), demonstrated the importance of developing a communication strategic plan that would promote public awareness and stimulate a well-informed public debate on biosafety (2). Based on these achievements a similar S-S project was developed between Brazil, Kenya and Uganda (2014-2016) to share Brazil?s experiences in using the communication strategic plan and science-based information to safely advance with GM crops. This was expected to enable the two African countries to make decisions on GM crops in accordance with their own values and needs without repeating Brazil?s mistakes (3). Much advancement was achieved with this initiative. One of the key lessons learned is the fact that interest groups are similar in all the countries but the power structure differs among the groups. It is therefore important to define a clear communication strategy to ensure delivery of messages that inform the decision-making process on GM crops

Biosafety education relevant to genetically engineered crops for academic and non-academic stakeholders in East Africa

Development and deployment of genetically engineered crops requires effective environmental and food safety assessment capacity. In-country expertise is needed to make locally appropriate decisions. In April 2007, biosafety and biotechnology scientists, regulators, educators, and communicators from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, met to examine the status and needs of biosafety training and educational programs in East Africa. Workshop participants emphasized the importance of developing biosafety capacity within their countries and regionally. Key recommendations included identification of key biosafety curricular components for university students; collaboration among institutions and countries; development of informational materials for non-academic stakeholders and media; and organization of study tours for decision makers. It was emphasized that biosafety knowledge is important for all aspects of environmental health, food safety, and human and animal hygiene. Thus, development of biosafety expertise, policies and procedures can be a stepping stone to facilitate improved biosafety for all aspects of society and the environment

Towards progressive regulatory approaches for agricultural applications of animal biotechnology.

Traditional breeding techniques, applied incrementally over thousands of years, have yielded huge benefits in the characteristics of agricultural animals. This is a result of significant, measurable changes to the genomes of those animal species and breeds. Genome editing techniques may now be applied to achieve targeted DNA sequence alterations, with the potential to affect traits of interest to production of agricultural animals in just one generation. New opportunities arise to improve characteristics difficult to achieve or not amenable to traditional breeding, including disease resistance, and traits that can improve animal welfare, reduce environmental impact, or mitigate impacts of climate change. Countries and supranational institutions are in the process of defining regulatory approaches for genome edited animals and can benefit from sharing approaches and experiences to institute progressive policies in which regulatory oversight is scaled to the particular level of risk involved. To facilitate information sharing and discussion on animal biotechnology, an international community of researchers, developers, breeders, regulators, and communicators recently held a series of seven virtual workshop sessions on applications of biotechnology for animal agriculture, food and environmental safety assessment, regulatory approaches, and market and consumer acceptance. In this report, we summarize the topics presented in the workshop sessions, as well as discussions coming out of the breakout sessions. This is framed within the context of past and recent scientific and regulatory developments. This is a pivotal moment for determination of regulatory approaches and establishment of trust across the innovation through-chain, from researchers, developers, regulators, breeders, farmers through to consumers

Capacitating One Health in Eastern and Southern Africa

The world is facing unprecedented, inter-connected threats to the health of people, animals and the environment. Threats to health security originating from animals and ecosystems can best prevented and managed by One Health (OH) which recognizes the interconnection of people, animals, plants, and their shared environment. But attaining the OH dividend requires greater operationalization of OH science and harnessing the power of youth to solve the problems of the present and future. In line with this approach, this project aims to enhance national and sub-regional cross-sectoral collaboration between government entities with OH mandates and OH stakeholders across society, to equip educational and research institutes to train the next generation One Health workforce, and to increase the capacity of government and non-governmental stakeholders to identify and deliver OH solutions to key problems. To conceptualize the above objectives, we conducted an expert integrative review to identify OH capacity potential and gaps in eastern and southern Africa, to develop a four-year, eleven-country project to translate OH science to development impact. We identified neglected zoonoses, emerging zoonoses, food safety and livestock associated antimicrobial resistance as key OH domains, with soil health subsidiary. Multi-criteria processes identified 11 priority countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, of which four are deep dive) and four support areas (observatory, platforms, future workforce and field solutions). A consortium was developed of research and research translation institutes (three Africa-based) linked to multipliers in priority countries. Future OH capacity will be enhanced through strengthening educational institutions to deliver recognised OH courses. Delivery of solutions for a specific OH issue is planned for Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, with the approach then used as a model for OH delivery. This initiative will ensure government entities capacitated in the development of evidence based One Health strategies and policies, education institutes strengthened in building OH capacity of the present and future workforce, and research institutes capacitated in identification, development, adoption and delivery of One Health solutions

Interview of Margaret Karembu Director, ISAAA Africenter, Kenya

Interviews of selected participant; views from the Regional Experts Workshop on Industrial Effluents Management in East Africa held on 19-20 May 2014, Ethiopi