GAMBIA: Journalists, youth organisations, students' researchers discuss GIs importance

Participants at  GIs Gambia forum

BiodiversityAction Journalists Gambia (BAJ Gambia) advocacy journalists organisation on Thursday 17^th July brought together local journalists, youth organisations and student researchers under one conference room to discuss on Geographical Indications (GIs), a program organized under the auspices of Biodiversity Action Journalists Gambia (BAJ-Gambia) held at its head office in Churchill’s Town.

The general objective of the gathering is to share GIs information with participants as well as putting in place GIs team in The Gambia.

African region has a great potential of origin linked quality products

Group pic after the opening ceremony

Mr. Vincent Fautrel, Senior Programme Coordinator Agricultural Trade and Value Chain Development Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (ACP-EU) says the African region has a great potential of origin linked quality products: Coffee from Guinea, Atieke from Côte d’Ivoire, and Pineapple from Benin, just to mention a few.

CTA: “our interest in Origin Linked Quality Products (OLQP) and Geographical Identifications (GIs) started in the mid 2000 in the context of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) discussions but also in the framework of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations. We commissioned a few papers to highlight the key issues for the ACP countries and organized in 2008 the first ACP-EU technical workshop in Montpellier France together with CIRAD, INRA and AFD."

Mr. Fautrel was speaking at the official opening ceremony of a training workshop on Identification and Inventory of Origin Linked Quality Products Capacity strengthening programme for Central and West African countries in Akossombo, Ghana, scheduled to take place from 12^th -16th May 2014.

The training was the third in a series, as the first two trainings were organised for the French-speaking countries in 2013 in Benin and Burkina Faso.