Proposals and positions for 11th Session of Governing Body
The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), Third World Network (TWN), and the Swiss Foundation for Cultural and Genetic Diversity (ProSpecieRara) warmly invite you to a webinar on Revision of the Access and Benefit-Sharing System of the FAO Plant Treaty: Proposals and positions for 11th Session of Governing Body.
Thursday, 9 October 2025
14:00 Central European Summer time/
Central African time (UTC+2)
Please click here to check the start time in your time zone.
Register to join here:
https://t2m.io/MLSwebinar_reglink
You will be sent a unique link to join the webinar.
Interpretation will be provided in English, Spanish, and French.
(Please click here for the French version and here for the Spanish version.)
Outline
This timely meeting will precede the 11th Session of the Governing Body (GB), to be held in Lima, Peru, 24-29 November 2025, where a new proposal for the Multilateral System (MLS) for Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) of the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA/Plant Treaty) will be discussed, consisting of three parts:
- A draft amendment to Annex 1 of the ITPGRFA/Plant Treaty,
- Draft amendments to the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA), under which plant genetic resources are transferred, and
- A draft resolution containing certain other measures.
Since 2013, the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the MLS of ABS has been in negotiations, with the set goal:
“To develop a range of measures that will increase user-based payments and contributions to the Benefit-sharing Fund in a sustainable and predictable long-term manner, and to enhance the functioning of the Multilateral System by additional measures.”
That was 12 years ago, and yet even at its 8th Session in 2019, the GB could not reach consensus on measures to enhance the functioning of the MLS.
The main question is: will this proposal finally introduce a fair access and benefit-sharing regime, or will it deliver an unbalanced system in favour of certain vested interests?
Programme
14:00
Welcome and introduction
Mariam Mayet, ACB
14:05
Basics of the MLS of the ITPGRFA and the Working Group Negotiations
François Meienberg, ProSpecieRara
14:20
Questions on the functioning of the MLS and further input by panellists
14:30
Panel discussion: Proposal to improve User-Based Income
Farmer & CSO Perspectives: Tanmay Joshi, Guy Kastler, François Meienberg, Nithin Ramakrishnan
Negotiator Perspectives: John Mulumba (Uganda) and Bal Krishna Joshi (Nepal)
Discussion/Q&A
14:55
Panel discussion: Proposal on PGRFA digital sequence information
Farmer & CSO Perspectives: Tanmay Joshi, Guy Kastler, François Meienberg, Nithin Ramakrishnan
Negotiator Perspectives: John Mulumba (Uganda) and Bal Krishna Joshi (Nepal)
Discussion/Q&A
15:10
Panel Discussion: Proposal to Amend Annex 1 of ITPGRFA
Farmer & CSO Perspectives: Tanmay Joshi, Guy Kastler, François Meienberg, Nithin Ramakrishnan
Negotiator Perspectives: John Mulumba (Uganda) and Bal Krishna Joshi (Nepal)
Discussion/Q&A
15:35
Panel discussion: Intellectual property rights, governance, accountability, and transparency
Farmer & CSO Perspectives: Tanmay Joshi, Guy Kastler, François Meienberg, Nithin Ramakrishnan
Negotiator Perspectives: John Mulumba (Uganda) and Bal Krishna Joshi (Nepal)
Discussion/Q&A
15:55
Closing
Mariam Mayet, ACB
For any queries, please email comms@acbio.org.za.
ACB, as part of a broader collective, submitted a letter to the African government officials who will be negotiating on proposals to amend the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) at its next Governing Body meeting in Lima, Peru, in November 2025. Read the English version of the letter here and the French version here.
