Biotechnology Capacity Building
The international community has been concentrating on biotechnology, the use of biological processes or living organisms for technological applications, as a means of development in many different areas throughout the past two decades. Through Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), the international community recognized the important role that biotechnology would play in agriculture, health, industry, and environment. Many also saw biotechnology as a vehicle with which developing countries can reach a state of development. The use of biotechnology can ultimately provide economic and social welfare benefits to farmers, healthcare services, industrialists and consumers. Furthermore, biotechnology can contribute both to the national economy, through increased production and decreased social costs and to an improved environment. These countries, however, cannot sustain this technology without the proper assistance and capacity-building measures.
There are also significant challenges with this issue. While biotechnology can achieve progress in many fields, it also poses a risk for policymakers and people. Much of the technology has been developed by the private sector in developed countries, giving rise to concerns about both the appropriateness and the accessibility of the new technologies for developing countries. Some areas of biotechnology are characterized by scientific uncertainty concerning the potentially adverse long-term impacts on health and the environment.
Finally, developments in genetics and the application of gene technologies have heightened ethical and socio-economic concerns. The potential for biotechnology to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, including diseases and the food shortage, make this issue very relevant and very important to the international community.
