Side Event

The Role of Biotechnology in Developing Economies

Organizer
UNU-IAS

Date and Time
15 March 2006 13:15 - 15:0

Meeting
Third meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (BS COP MOP 3)

Could the potential applications of biotechnology in agriculture, industry, medicine, environmental protection and resource conservation help solve the problems of developing economies? This side event focuses on findings of a series of UNU-IAS reports by Dr Albert Sasson*, UNU-IAS Visiting Professor, headed by a book, Medical Biotechnology: Achievements, Prospects and Perceptions, -which shows that the main beneficiaries of the so-called biotechnology revolution and the resulting bio-industries are the industrialized countries – accompanied by two reports, Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology: Current Achievements, Prospects and Perceptions, and Food and Nutrition Biotechnology: Current Achievements, Prospects and Perceptions. The book and reports examine fundamental questions on regulatory standards and ethical norms governing biotechnology that governments, organizations, and the private sector must tackle to address the technological and economic gap between rich and poor countries. As developing countries increasingly invest in biotechnology, a major challenge emerges: to ensure equitable and fair access to biotechnology. Are biotechnologies going to be a panacea for the problems of developing countries, or will they add to the disparities existing between these countries and the industrialized technologically advanced world? If governments and the international community do not establish regulatory standards and ethical norms remain unchecked, then will the rise of biotechnology end up being a curse, or bane, for sustainable development? The book and two initial reports were developed under the umbrella of the UNU-IAS Science Policy for Sustainable Development Programme and are part of a series of biotechnology publications by UNU-IAS, aimed at providing information on the challenges, opportunities, and risks of this expanding technology for sound decision- and policy-making on these complex issues.