25. What institutional arrangements does the Protocol require at the national level?
Parties are required to designate national institutions to perform functions relating to the Protocol. Each Party needs to designate one national focal point to be responsible on its behalf for liaison with the Secretariat. The functions for liaison may include, for example, receiving notifications of meetings relating to the Protocol issued by the Secretariat and invitations to submit views on matters under discussion, and acting accordingly (see
Article 19).
Each Party also needs to designate one or more competent national authorities, which are responsible for performing the administrative functions required by the Protocol and which shall be authorized to act on its behalf with respect to those functions. A Party may designate a single entity to fulfill the functions of both focal point and competent national authority. Each Party must, no later than the date of entry into force of the Protocol for it, notify the Secretariat of the names and addresses of its focal point and its competent national authority or authorities. The Secretariat maintains lists of
designated NFPs and CNAs for the Protocol which are searchable on the
BCH.
In addition to these institutional arrangements stipulated by the Protocol, the first meeting of COP-MOP called upon Parties, as well as Governments, organizations and other users interested in entering into partnership with the Biosafety Clearing-House to nominate an appropriate national focal point to carry out this role (see
Decision BS-I/3).
