GBDI's Unique Approach

Both in training sessions and consultations, the goal of GBDI is to help developing scientists, lawyers and other professionals in developing nations equip themselves with the practical knowledge and skills they need to leverage their bio-resources for the benefit of sustainable economic development.

GBDI's holistic approach helps developing countries overcome critical barriers that commonly hinder efforts to develop their underutilized potential in the bioscience sector. These barriers include:

  1. Lack of long-term strategic planning. Institutions do little or no long-range strategic planning. As a result, they are forced to react to opportunities brought from outside, rather than focus on options that best suit long-term strategic needs.

  2. Lack of coordination among various institutions involved in implementation: There is little or no process for coordinating efforts of the wide range of agencies involved. Redundancy and waste are the results.

  3. Failure to link the bioscience sector with local resources in information technologies. Local resources in the IT sector are overlooked by institutions who don't understand the growing role of IT in bioscience development.

GBDI directly confronts each of these challenges, by working with local institutions to identify where and how they can best be addressed.
Our Holistic Vision

To overcoming these barriers, GBDI provides unique, customized, and multidisciplinary training sessions and consultations that:
  1. Assist policymakers and institutions to develop a clear process for creating a coherent strategy for using bioscience as a key component in their economic development.

  2. Bring together institutional leaders and policymakers in the private and public sectors to create partnerships that reduce redundancy and waste, and overcome mistrust or misunderstanding.

  3. Help planners identify and use local assets already available in their information technology sector as a cornerstone for the further development of the biosciences.

GBDI training sessions and consultations are designed to:
  • Improve understanding of biodiversity conservation, bioprospecting, biotechnology, and related law (e.g., intellectual property rights and trade regimes), and

  • Help policymakers develop coherent strategies for economic development in rural areas by adopting science and technology that solve problems of sustainable development on a local, national and regional level.

GBDI's unique holistic approach involves providing cross-disciplinary training and information on biodiversity conservation, bioprospecting, biotechnology and law (e.g., intellectual property rights and trade regimes) to scientists, legal professionals, local communities, national leaders and government officials in developing countries.

The goal is to increase knowledge and skills among scientists, lawyers, intellectual property professionals, government officials and other stakeholders in developing countries regarding every aspect of biodiversity conservation, biotechnology and law. The ultimate objective is to stimulate sustainable economic development and biodiversity conservation.

GBDI's comprehensive, holistic approach trains stakeholders in:
  1. Conservation and sustainable use of biological resources.

  2. Standards for protecting intellectual property and community righs.

  3. Strategies for ensuring sharing of benefits equitably among all stakeholders.

  4. The impact of (and conflicts among) key international treaties.

  5. Strategies for using biological resources to build indigenous capacity for resource management, science, technology and industry.
GBDI's Four Training Modules

GBDI provides four training modules covering a wide range of topics involved in biodiversity conservation, bioprospecting, and biotechnology.

GBDI training courses assist local policymakers involved in regulating biotechnology and assuring bio-safety to:

  • Acquire a full understanding of the concerns of partners concerning bio-engineered products; and

  • Assess the impact of trends in agricultural biotechnology on public research and food supply.

  • Develop a coherent policy for making the bioscience sector an important engine of sustainable economic growth.
A Regional Focus

When possible or appropriate, GBDI takes a regional approach in order to promote interaction, sharing of experiences and the harmonization of strategies toward solving a common problem. GBDI tries to utilize existing sub-regional frameworks (such as ECOWAS- the Economic Community of West African States) to expand cooperative networks into other areas.

The overriding philosophy is that developing countries need to develop the capacity to guide the use of biotechnology in their own countries. As a result of inaction, developing countries risk losing control of their use of genetic resources and products in their communities. Developing countries must ultimately make their own decisions about what is or is not good for them with regard to biotechnology.

To do that effectively, they must mobilize expertise, communications channels, and policy structures for the task. GBDI's training courses and consultations provide a thorough examination of the potential benefits of biotechnology as well as the potential risks, emphasizing the analysis of scientific merit as well as socioeconomic factors and competing values.

The testimonials of participants in GBDI's training programs attest to the unique value of GBDI's approach.