Participating in Regional and International Meetings, Part One

Kabir Bavikatte participated as a resource person for at the Pan African Indigenous and Local Community Workshop in Nairobi from the 14th to the 17th of September 2009. The goal of the workshop was capacity development of African indigenous and local community representatives. Kabir presented to the community representatives the draft of the African operational text on traditional knowledge and capacity building that would be negotiated in Montreal in November at the 8th meeting of the Working Group on ABS. The community representatives made a number of comments and recommendations to the operational text which was incorporated in the draft by Kabir as the leader of the drafting team. Kabir also made presentations on the importance and development of biocultural protocols and the traditional knowledge commons both of which were received very enthusiastically by the African community representatives at the workshop.

Kabir Bavikatte also participated as a resource person in the ABS Capacity Development Workshop for Eastern and Southern Africa held in Addis Ababa from the 28th of September to the 2nd of October 2009. Kabir presented on the challenges of documenting traditional knowledge and the concerns of indigenous and local communities regarding the pre, during and post documentation processes. The Addis workshop was attended by multiple stakeholders including representatives of government who engaged in a lively discussion on the challenges of documenting traditional knowledge.