The current Action Plan for Building Capacities for the Effective Implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety lists 15 priority areas requiring urgent action. The include: (a) Institutional capacity-building;(b) Human-resources development and training; (c) Risk assessment and other scientific and technical expertise; (d) Risk management; (e) Awareness, participation and education at all levels, including for decision makers, stakeholders and the general public; (f) Information exchange and data management, including full participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House;(g) Scientific, technical and institutional collaboration at sub regional, regional and international levels; (h) Technology transfer; (i) Identification of living modified organisms, including their detection; (j) Socio-economic considerations; (k) Implementation of the documentation requirements under Article 18.2 of the Protocol; (l) Handling of confidential information; (m) Measures to address unintentional and/or illegal transboundary movements of living modified organisms; (n) Scientific biosafety research relating to living modified organisms; (o) The taking into account risks to human health.
In the draft evaluation report, some respondents recommended that in order to make the Action Plan more relevant, it would be useful to have a more focused set of priorities rather than a long ‘laundry list’ of things that could be done.
