The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded Michigan State University (MSU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development $10.4 million to help reduce poverty in Africa by connecting biosafety regulators and technology.
According to excerpts from the article:
The foundation announced the grant in conjunction with Bill Gates’ keynote address today at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa. It is part of a package of nine agricultural development projects totaling $120 million to address long-term food security.
Four members of the African Biosafety Network of Expertise staff are currently taking classes and working with MSU faculty to learn about the biotechnology issues affecting small-holder farmers, such as cost to farmers and safety to the environment and to human health. They also will learn how to address and understand ethical concerns related to the use of biotechnology.
MSU and NEPAD — a socioeconomic development program of the African Union — will use grant money to convene workshops and provide regulators with the most current science-based information to regulate biotechnology while protecting farmers, consumers and the environment.
An African-based and African-led initiative, ABNE will draw upon existing expertise and resources, while forming connections with both African and global institutions to create a network of expertise. In February 2008, MSU and NEPAD received a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to establish the ABNE, a continent-wide, science-based biosafety resource for African regulators.
Read the entire article here.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.