The African Biological Safety Association (AfBSA) is a newly formed association in Africa that seeks to engage and promote biosafety, including biosecurity.
AfBSA was born on May 31, 2007 during the Sub Regional Workshop held at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Kenya May 28-31, 2007.
Representatives from 23 African Countries attended the Workshop. These countries included: Angola, Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, The Gambia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
During the meeting I was tasked with the role to develop strategies towards the formation of the association. So far I have been able to propose a constitution and AfBSA's website is the latest resource on biosafety information.
Participants from 25 French speaking countries: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroun, Cape Verde, Central Africa, Comoros, DRC Congo, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome, Senegal, Chad and Togo unanimously agreed to join AfBSA during the Sub Regional Workshop held at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Kenya Sept 15-19, 2008. Among these countries Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Angola, Sao Tome and Mozambique also use Portuguese as their National language.
AfBSA represents professionals working in the field of biosafety and endeavors to make biosafety a recognized profession with well defined tasks and qualifications. To achieve these objectives AfBSA is currently developing initiatives towards training of its members attain the necessary skills in Biosafety and Biosecurity.
Already AfBSA has developed a working relationship with our host the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the World Health Organization (WHO), Centres for disease Control (CDC), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and International Centre for Infectious Diseases (ICID), Sandia National Laboratories, Emory University, International Biosafety Working Group and the UN Committee on Transport of Dangerous Goods. We welcome more partners to work with us.
AfBSA has links with other Biosafety organizations which include the American Biosafety Association (ABSA), the European Biosafety Association (EBSA), the Asia Pacific Biosafety Association (APBA), Associacao Nacional de Biossegurance, Brasil (ANBio), ABSA Canada among others