The CEO of NEPAD, Dr Mayaki, who is leading adelegation to the Africa week at the UN Headquarters in New York, recently addressed the Africa Biosafety Network of Experts (ABNE)’s breakfast meeting, held under the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa.

He was accompanied by Dr Steve Pueppke, the research Provost of Michigan State University, which is an important ABNE partner. The breakfast event was organised to highlight the role of ABNE to the donor communities in building functional biosafety regulatory regimes in Africa and the tasks ahead.

ABNE is a continent-wide service network that has buy-in from the African governments. It aims to build functional biosafety systems in Africa and to empower African regulators with science-based information,

Dr Mayaki also participated in a panel discussion on Transformative Policy: Focus on Africa. Other panellists were the Nigerian Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Mr Akinwumi Adesina, Liberia’s Minister for Agriculture Ms Florence Chenoweth, and President, of the Global Development Program at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Dr Chris Elias.

This week the CEO will address a number of high level sessions among them an address to UN Member States on Promoting African Renaissance through Post-2015; a briefing to the African Group on “Africa Transformation Agenda” at the African Union Permanent Observer Mission to the UN and a Lecture on “How Africa will Renew the Concept of Leadership” at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge