Parallel Session A - Presentation by Jeremy Ouedraogo

1. Emerging Technologies – risk, trust and public engagement
In what ways has public perception, engagement, and
trust been important as GM crops get introduced in
Africa?
Jeremy Tinga OUEDRAOGO
Burkina Faso

2. Introduction
 Two of the greatest challenges of
21st century are:
1- Increasing demands for food,
water and energy from a
growing population and
2- Climate change
Agriculture is central to both
challenges nowhere more so than
in Africa.
Challenges of climate change,
population extensification require
innovative solutions.
By 2050 Africa will need to triple the
food availability level it had in 2000
This will require novel, better targeted
“SMART” technologies
Modern Biotechnology as a
scientific tool recognised as Key
component of a holistic strategy
towards food security.
Many african countries…to
overcome agricultural biotic and
abiotic constraints tried biotec
crops.

3. GM CROPS IN AFRICA
• 29 countries cultivating GM crops
worldwide, 19 are developing
countries.
• 4 African countries have approved
the commercial cultivation of GM
crops:
South Africa (Cotton, Maize and
Soybean)
Egypt (cotton)
Burkina Faso (Cotton)
Sudan (Cotton)
• 7 countries in SSA currently
conducting confined field trials
(CFTs) of GM varieties of locally-
grown crops.
(rice, maize, bananas, cassava, wheat,
sorghum and sweet potato).
Kenya; Uganda; Cameroun
Malawi; Nigeria; Ghana; Egypt
• 12 countries are conducting
research in contained facilities,
• 23 are developing research and
development (R&D) capacity in
GM crops.

4. Public perception, engagement and trust
varies from one country to another.
• Adoption of GM crops in SSA marked by controversy,
encompassing
• potential risks to animal and human health, and to the
environment,
• ethical issues, public participation in decision-making,
• socio-economic factors
• intellectual property rights.
Therefore disseminating credible information to the public as
well as facilitating stakeholder input into decision-making are
essential.

5. Public perception, engagement and trust
varies from one country to another.
• Africa has experience different ways of public participation.
• Various state decision came out
• Moratorium in Benin
• No research activity in many countries
• Biosafety frameworks in many countries
• Adoption and commercial release

6. In Burkina Faso
• l’Agence Nationale de Biosécurité, has provisions for involving the public in
decision-making
• Stakeholders organized in NGOs or Producers unions
• Journalists /communicators created their groups
• Involvement of varied stakeholders early in the adoption of the biosafety law, in
the awareness-raising campaigns and in undertaking the Confined field trials.
• National Union of cotton producers (farmers) decided together with scientists
and cotton companies witch constraint to tackle
• Minister in charge of agriculture and scientific research frequently called beside
the parliament to answer civil society or farmers concerns (lastly: fiber length of
the currently cultivated GM cotton questioned).

7. • The public acceptance (and engagement) of GM crops in countries of SSA is
divided. Generally, the more familiar the public is with biotechnology, the more
they tend to hold a positive view.
• Even when concerns of risks abound, there is great interest in the prospects that
biotechnology can bring towards food security, agriculture improvement and
economic gains, and also a great interest in obtaining more information on the
subject.
• Participation of stakeholders in decision-making and awareness-raising.
• Stakeholder participation in decision-making is a requirement of international
treaties concerning the governance of biotechnology such as the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety, and it is beginning to be viewed more positively for
publicly-funded biotechnology research.

8. Despite advances in most countries, participation and trust do need to be improved. For
example, Communication on Biotechnology and mainly risk communication are very
important challenges.
Communication gaps between
stakeholders
Low educational level of many of
the recipients
Lack of valid data to support
claims made about GMO risks;
Involvement of various
stakeholders early in the process
• Human and Institutional capacity
• Financial
• Regulatory
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
• Trade and Markets
• Accurate information/awareness
• Political will
Key Challenges / Constraints to be
addressed

9. Conclusion
Key knowledge gaps in this area that need to be addressed
• Develop an ex ante socioeconomic impact analysis of an expanded group of
key products under development in order to engage especially those African
countries that currently have limited experience with the technology.This
will be useful to more broadly inform the political andpolicy dialogue.
• Collect better data with respect to a range of issues related to
biotechnology in Africa technical capacity,infrastructure, policy capacity,
regulatory capacity, IPR policies, financial resources, project impacts, gender
impacts, and product pipeline data
• Using innovative tools and methods for social network analysis, devise and
implement a comprehensive strategy for outreach and communication, and
initiate a baseline assessment of current attitudes and perceptions about
biotechnology in Africa.

10. future work priorities in this field/area that need
to be addressed
• Capacity building. The capacity of Africa to innovate, create, adapt, apply, and
transform its agriculture sector using the new tools of biotechnology is, at this
time, seriously deficient. Capacity include human resources or technical
capacity, infrastructure, financial resources, and the policy or legal climate.
• Explore a number of discrete actions (workshops, training, capacity-building
initiatives, and so on) to encourage a nuanced and informed dialogue about
intellectual property and biotechnology, and develop capacity to negotiate
intellectual property and licensing agreements, especially at the institutional
level.
• Provide support for regulatory capacity building, including the harmonization
of efforts and facilitation of better coordination.

11. Thank you for your attention
Merci
•Mandela: "Doing something for people without
is doing it against them«
•Governments duty is to have vision
•Public information, participation, engagement
and trust ensure success to policies
implementation.