NEPAD led Biosafety Network receives close to US$1.5m additional funding from Gates Foundation…

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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF / Gates Foundation) has awarded the African Union’s-NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency a supplemental grant of US $1,489,098 to support the ongoing work of the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE)

Following the submission of a proposal to the Gates Foundation for a supplemental grant for additional funding in order to expand support to African regulators through more staff and also to align with the AU remuneration policies, the Foundation has approved the sum of US$1,489,098 to ABNE.

This supplemental grant therefore increases the total award in Phase II to US$11,929,537. The grant will become accessible from January 2012.

The supplemental grant is necessary to bridge unanticipated budgetary shortfalls in meeting programmatic activities as outlined in the initial grant proposal. The funds will also address overstretched budgetary allocations for ABNE activities occasioned by a steady increase in the demand for biosafety services across the continent. The supplemental grant is important to ensure that ABNE delivers on its objective and milestones set forth in the initial grant proposal.

ABNE is a continent-wide initiative whose overall goal is to assist African countries in their efforts to build functional biosafety systems for sustainable and safe application of agricultural biotechnology. This goal is to be achieved by empowering African regulators with science-based biosafety information, training and education, technical assistance and other relevant biosafety capacity building programs.

For more information, please contact:

Diran Makinde, Director AU-NEPAD Agency ABNE. 06 BP 9884 Ouagadougou 06 Burkina Faso. Tel: +226 50 30 15 01; Fax : +226 50 30 15 02.  E-mail: diran.makinde@nepadbipsafety.net