Preamble: The 3 rd Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (STC, ARDWE) that was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 21-25 October, 2019 recommended, among others, that the African Union Commission (AUC) and the AUDA-NEPAD lead the development of an Action Plan for the implementation of the African Seed and Biotechnology Programme (ASBP) including an institutional framework to facilitate its implementation at the national, regional and continental levels.
It is worth noting that the same STC endorsed the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative as the official agency overseeing the implementation of the AU Decision on Organic Agriculture and endorsed Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) as the host of the Secretariat. In line with the AU decision on Organic Agriculture and the mandate of the ASBP, the Continental Steering Committee (CSC) of the EOA-Initiative has a Technical Working Group (TWG) on organic seed systems (OSS). The TWG-OSS is mandated to provide guidance to the CSC in support of the development of sustainable organic seed systems in Africa.
The Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA) organized a virtual workshop of key stakeholders in the seed sector development in Africa on 04-September 2020. The meeting was hosted by Dr. Simplice Nouala, Head of the Agriculture and Food security Division for the African Union Commission and Chairperson of the CSC of the EOA-I. From the EOA-I, the meeting was also attended by Dr. David Amudavi, the Executive Director of BvAT, Mr. Alex Mutungi, the Continental Coordinator of the EOA-I Secretariat, and two members of the CSC TWG-OSS, Dr. Sarah Olembo (Kenya) and Mr. Zakaria Sambakhe (Senegal). Dr. Olembo is also the gender representative within the CSC while Mr. Sambakhe is also the Country Director of Action Aid, Senegal.
ASBP Meeting: The general objective of the meeting was to hold sector wide consultations with key seed stakeholders in Africa on the operationalization of the governance structure of the African Seed and Biotechnology Programme, and specifically:
- Discuss and validate the Operational Guidelines of the African Seed and Biotechnology Platform
- Discuss the proposed criteria for a host institution of the Secretariat of the ASB Platform
- Recommend to AUC-DREA management an interim institution to host the Secretariat of the ASB Platform and a draft roadmap for the selection of the secretariat.
- Agree on the next steps including proposals on members of the i) Steering Group; (ii) Thematic/Geographic Working Groups as well as holding the General Assembly of the Platform.
Endorsement: Following spirited negotiation of Dr. Sara Olembo and her colleagues, the EOA-I TWG on seed systems was endorsed to be part of the Steering Committee (SC) of the ASBP to contribute to the overall governance of programs on seed systems and capacity development in Africa. It is our hope that the EOA-I will additionally contribute to other technical areas including: Seed legislations; Seed regulations; Biosafety regulations; and Animal seed regulations This development marks another milestone for the EOA-I seed policy development in Africa. The EOA-I finds itself inside important seed discussions in the continent giving it the opportunity to champion for organic seed policies and programmes. The EOA Initiative Secretariat would like to thank Dr. Simplice Nouala and DREA for giving the CSC TWG-OSS an opportunity to be part of the ASBP Steering Committee (ST)
Authors: Dr. David Amudavi (Executive Director-BvAT) and Alex Mutungi (AU-EOA-I Continental Secretariat
Coordinator)