Increasing institutional capability of developing countries on biotechnology safety

Some activities at national, regional and global levels already address this issue and also the provision of advice to individual countries on the development of national guidelines and systems for the implementation of those guidelines. These activities are generally uncoordinated, however, involving many different organizations, priorities, constituencies, time-scales, funding sources and resource constraints. There is a need for a much more cohesive and coordinated approach to harnessing available resources in the most effective manner. As with most new technologies, research in biotechnology and the application of its findings could have significant positive and negative socio-economic and cultural impacts. These impacts should be carefully identified in the earliest phases in biotechnology development so as to enable appropriate management of the consequences of transferring biotechnology.