In most cases, the administration of biosafety responsibilities is either shared by several government departments (e.g. environment, agriculture, health, science) or centralized and managed by one office which is responsible for the coordination of biosafety issues over a number of government departments.
The choice of framework most often reflects existing regulatory structures and the resources available at the national level for implementing the biosafety regulations.
There has been a significant increase in the number of countries that possess NBFs. A global initiative funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and its implementing agencies helped this process by providing administrative and technical assistance to countries for developing and implementing their NBFs in accordance with their obligations under the Cartagena Protocol.
Countries’ requirements and priorities resulted in the development of national biosafety policies in a variety of forms. Some choose to develop a standalone policy on biosafety, whilst others formulated combined policies on biotechnology and biosafety. Some policies are part of wider policies on biodiversity conservation and environmental protection, trade related issues, biosecurity and quarantine, or established within the overall context of sustainable development or Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992).
As of July 2009, through the GEF funded initiatives, 111 developing countries have completed the development phase of their National Biosafety Frameworks and made them available online.
