The African Biosafety Network of Expertise was launched on 23 February 2010 with the signing of a host agreement between the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the Government of Burkina Faso.
[1] It was conceptualized in Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action (2005) and fulfils the recommendation of the High-Level African Panel on Modern Biotechnology, entitled Freedom to Innovate.
In addition to providing regulators with access to policy briefs and other relevant information online in English and French, the network organizes national and subregional workshops on specific topics.
For instance, one-week biosafety courses for African regulators were run by the network in Burkina Faso in November 2013 and in Uganda in July 2014, in partnership with the University of Michigan (USA).
[1] In June 2014, the network organized a four-day study tour to South Africa for ten regulators and policy-makers from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.