Abstract:

A series of activities have been carried out regionally and nationally in accordance with -.he East Africa
regional work plan for 2005 (Appendix 1). The thrust here is to assist participating countries and the East
African region as a whole to progress towards attaining efficient and functional biosafety systems The
current strategy is to assist countries have both regulatory and technical capacity to conduct confined field
trials of transgenic crops. This effort is augmented by support iowaids tisk assessment, risk management
and risk communication. Activities on policy development also picked up while specific policy related
studies on economic implications of GMOs to the region and on legal comparisons continued. Trainings in
food and biosafety assessment were also carried out. A Regional Strategic Plan was developed. The region
participated in the BBI competitive grants and two proposals were selected for funding. Work plans for
2006 were developed.