There are drafts of Biosafety law and Nacional Biosafety Framework that need to be revised and approved by the Council of Ministers before implementation.

There is an Agency with responsibility to regulate the transboundary movement, handling and use of all pharmaceutical products, including LMOs, but is not operating yet in the LMOs field.

Though not implemented yet, the draft National Biosafety Framework proposes a notification system, acknowlegment of receipt and decision procedure based on the The Advance Informed Agreement (AIA).

Although the answers to questions 51, 52, 53, 54 and 56 are "No", the drafts National Biosafety Framework (NBF) and Biosafety Legislation propose a procedure for living modified organisms for direct use as food or feed, or for processing.

Even though the country has not entered into any bilateral, regional or multilateral agreements or arrangements regarding intentional transboundary movements of LMOs, it has agreements on the scope of international treaties that may directely or indirectely relate to the regulation of LMOs. The more relevant ones are the Codex Alimentarius and the agreements within the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff – GATT; the Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Agreement – SPS; and the International Plants Protection Convention – IPPC.

Cape Verde does not have a mechanism in place for conducting risk assessment of LMOs, but the draft National Biosafety Framework (NBF) already elaborated, proposes a mechanism and guidelines for the evaluation of  LMOs for the different uses.

Like for risk assessment, the country does not have a mechanism in place for risk management, but again the draft NBF proposes appropriate mechanisms, measures and strategies to regulate, manage and control risks identified in the risk assessment provisions of the Biosafety Protocol associated with the use, handling and transboundary movement of living modified organisms.

The drafts of NBF and biosafety legislation propose the necessary measures to require that LMOs subject to intentional transboundary movement within the scope of this Protocol are handled, packaged and transported under conditions of safety, taking into consideration relevant international rules and standards.

Cape Verde has designated a focal point for the Cartagena Protocol but has not yet established  a Competent   National Authority (CNA) . However the drafts NBF and legislation propose a single   CNA responsible for performing the administrative functions required by this Protocol and authorize to act on its behalf with respect to those functions.

The answer to the question 133 does not apply since the country has not yet established procedures to protect confidential information.

Cape Verde has benefited from capacity building through strengthening of human resources and institutional&nbsp; capacities in biosafety using resources made available by regional channels. However, since the country does not have expertise in the domains of biosafety and biotechnology, more capacity building is still needed in several areas as specified in question 147. <br /><br />Although the draft National Biosafety Framework proposes an action plan that includes a capacity building strategy, it needs to be updated to respond the current needs.<br /><br />Regarding GEF funds, it has been quite easy for Cape Verde to access since it is an elegible country and has successfully met the goals of the projects for which the funds were allocated.<br />

The draft NBF document proposes mechanism, strategy and legislation for public involvement&nbsp; in biosafety issues. To ensure effective public participation, the draft NBF recommends the establishment of a "Public Committee" that would comprise the public sector, NGOs, Directorate General of Education, associations for environmental protection and consumers defence.

The draft legislation proposes domestic measures for penalizing transboundary movements of GMOs, in general, carried out in infringement of measures to implement the Cartagena Protocol, but does not specify LMOs.

Cape Verde hosted, in April 2011, a workshop&nbsp; "National consultation on the project proposal of the sub-regional framework regulation for preventing and managing the risks of Biotechnology in West Africa". The participants proposed ammendments to the draft of sub-regional legal framework on Biosafety to meet the national needs and in accordance with the drafts NBF and proposed legislation.

The implementation of the Cartagena protocol on Biosafety, as it appears at this point, gives the idea that the protocol limits to the project "Developement of the National Biosafety Framework (NBF) for Cape Verde", when this project is just a component of the Protocol. It was not possible to find record of the first or interim repport on the implementation of the Protocol to allow a follow-up on the sequence of the activities developed.&nbsp; All existing reports are regarding quarterly reports of the project on the NBF developement.<br /><br />Issues related to institutional responsabilities on the Protocol and institutional changes that ocurred since Cape Verde became part of the Protocol,&nbsp; may have constrained, to a certain extent, an effective implementation of the overall instrument. It should be stressed that the focal point of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is the Directorate General of Environment while the National Executing Agency (NEA) for the Development of the NBF is the National Institute of Agricultural Research and Development (INIDA).<br /><br />Even though there are drafts of a National Biosafety Framework and a Biosafety legislation that propose mechanisms, strategies, authorities, institutional responsabilities and an Action Plan to deal with all aspects related to Biosafety in the country, these instruments are outdated and needs to be revised according to new developments, challenges and institutional setups. After the proposed update, which should also harmonize with sub-regional innitiatives, the NBF should be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval. An effective implementation of this protocol requires further human, financial and institutional resources. <br /><br />Re; Q. 14 Cape Verde ratified the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety on November 1st 2005 through the Decree Law 11/2005<br />

There was no major difficulties in filling this report. However, there were some questions that we thought should have another option besides "yes or no" since in the case of Cape Verde the answers did not apply as in case of questions 127, 128, 130 and 133. For these questions, there should be an option "not applicable".

Has no experiments in the field