Review of the Policy, Regulatory Mechanisms and Administration of Biosafety in Eastern and Southern Africa: A study of Kenya, South Africa, Malawi and the ASARECA initiative
This report summarises the results of a review of the policy, regulatory mechanisms and 
administration of biosafety in Kenya, Malawi and South Africa and under the ASARECA regional 
initiative. The report focuses on the current situation and provides insights as to the form that 
developments in the area of regulation of biotechnology are likely to take. 
The first section is an introduction, which provides the definition and scope of biotechnology as 
used in this report. It provides a brief status of agricultural research; the areas of research and the 
actors involved in biotechnology in the study countries. With the exception of South Africa, 
experimentation in transgenic crops is still under development. Most of the current agricultural 
biotechnology R&D activities focus on improving crop productivity. The actors are mainly National 
Agriculture Research Institutes, International Agricultural Research Centres and universities. 
Private sector involvement is in the form of multinational companies. 
The second section discusses the frameworks for the regulation of biotechnology. These include 
international obligations, regional attempts, as well as national efforts in regulating biotechnology in 
the study countries. Regulation at the national level has been in the form of national policies, 
national strategies and through legislation. In Kenya and in most countries under the ASARECA 
initiative, acts of parliament are yet to be enacted. The proposed bill and regulations in Kenya and 
the proposed regional regulatory structure under ASARECA are discussed with the aim of 
providing an insight as to the trend regulation in these jurisdictions is likely to take. 
The third section is a discussion on institutional arrangements in the field of agricultural 
biotechnology. Who are the institutional actors? What are the synergies? What is the institutional 
capacity in terms of human resources and physical infrastructure? This section also explores the 
commercialisation and innovation attempts in the study countries. It examines public perception 
and acceptance of modern biotechnology and ends with a brief mention on intellectual property 
protection in the study countries. South Africa has a developed institutional structure with 
impressive facilities and adequate human resource capacity. Critical mass in modern biotechnology 
in the other study countries is yet to be attained. Facilities for experimentation in GM technology 
are likewise lacking in Kenya, Malawi and other ASARECA countries. 
The fourth section summarises the review and presents the way forward. South Africa is best 
placed to handle applications for testing transgenics such as the rosette-resistant groundnut 
developed by ICRISAT. A representative from the Malawi biosafety committee should be involved 
in the testing of the groundnuts in RSA as part of a capacity building exercise and also to pave the 
way for the testing of the groundnuts in Malawi. In Kenya, there are indications that once an event 
is approved elsewhere, it is likely to receive timely approval subject to any additional testing that 
the National Biosafety Board may deem necessary. ICRISAT would have to collaborate with the 
KARI Institutional Biosafety Committee through which the application to the National Biosafety 
Committee would be made.
Kenya: biotechnology in Africa: why the controversy?
This is a time of intensive discussions of Africa’s agricultural and economic performance, and the potential impact of biotechnology on the economy and the welfare of the continent. The two issues that dominate the debate are the persistent poor performance of agriculture with associated widespread poverty, and the ability of biotechnology to resolve Africa’s food crises taking into account its potential and perceived effects on the continent’s enormous biological diversity.
The Lay of the Land: English Landscape Themes in Early Modern Painting in England
The Lay of the Land: English Landscape Themes in Early Modern Painting in England