STDF WORKSHOP ON SPS CAPACITY EVALUATION TOOLS 31 March 2008 Erie Tamale, Programme Officer Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity Capacity Assessment Under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety CBD

Presentation Outline Part I:Background to CB under the Protocol Part II:CB Needs Assessment Part III:Preliminary Set of Indicators Part IV:Concluding Remarks CBD

CBD PART I: Brief Background to the Protocol Negotiated under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Adopted 29 January 2000 after 4 years of intense negotiations Entry into force: 9 September ratifications/ accessions 3 meeting of the governing body (COP- MOP); 42 substantive decisions Next COP-MOP: May 2008; Bonn, Germany

CBD Objective of the Protocol To contribute to ensuring the safe transfer, handling and use of LMOs resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on the biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health *In accordance with the precautionary approach

CBD CB Under the Protocol Article 22 (Capacity-building) : Parties shall cooperate in the development and/or strengthening of human resources and institutional capacities in biosafety Needs of DC & EIT country Parties for financial resources and access to and transfer of technology and know-how shall be taken fully into account Article 28 (Financial mechansim9: GEF to take into account the needs of DC & EIT country Parties

CBD CB Tools & Processes CB Action Plan adopted in 2004 Coordination Mechanism Implementation toolkit (checklist) Preliminary set of indicators Online needs assessment questionnaire through the BCH

CBD CB Action Plan Elements of the AP: Institutional capacity building (including national regulatory frameworks) Human-resources development and training Scientific and technical expertise Legal, social and economic expertise Risk assessment and other scientific and technical expertise Risk management Public awareness, education and participation Information exchange and data management (and the BCH) Scientific, technical and institutional collaboration Technology transfer Identification of LMOs Socio-economic considerations

CBD CB Needs Assessment MOP decision BS-I/5 – Parties invited to submit their needs & priorities (online through the BCH or using a common format (questionnaire) Over 50 countries have submitted their needs/priorities Parties required to periodically update their records in the needs database ( cityNeeds.aspx) Needs synthesis reports prepared by the SCBD for COP- MOP and donors Problem: Limited updates of the country records

CBD Preliminary set of indicators In decision BS-1/5 (Annex V), MOP adopted a preliminary set of indicators for monitoring implementation of the CB Action Plan Governments and relevant organizations were invite to use the indicators to monitor their biosafety CB initiatives and share their experiences and lessons learned There is limited experience so far COP-MOP 4 to review the indicators and propose improvements for their use

CBD Measures to promote use of the indicators (to be considered by MOP-4) Incorporation of the indicators into the format for the national reports which are mandatory under the Protocol (this would encourage systematic use of the indicators by all Parties) Synthesis of the reports by the CBD to develop a global picture of the progress made in building capacities to address different issues Inclusion of a scale to enable users to rate the status or level of existing capacity against the different indicators (0 (zero or non-existent); 1 (low or somewhat in place; 2 (medium or partially in place), 3 (high or mostly in place); and 4 (very high or fully in place)

CBD Other ways of using the indicators Use of the indicator framework in: Stocktaking to establish capacity-building baselines and benchmarks Assessing and reporting CB needs and priorities Designing of projects and policies and setting targets Monitoring and evaluating the perfomance of biosafety projects and activities

CBD Concluding Remarks Different CB assessment and evaluation tools have been developed under the Protocol are not yet effectively utilized There is limited experience with using CB assessment and evaluation tools under the Protocol but progress is being made There is a need to share experiences and lessons learned from other processes.

CBD Contacts for Further Information Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 413 Saint-Jacques Street, suite 800 Montreal, Quebec Canada H2Y 1N9 Tel.: +1 (514) Fax: +1 (514) Protocol website: Biosafety Clearing-House:

CBD THANK YOU! Website for the fourth COP-MOP