Synthesis  of National Impact Reports for BIO-EARN Phase II (2002-2005) Report by John Komen and Ivar Virgin BIO-EARN's impacts for Phase II (2002-2005) were synthesized in a report published in September 2006. The report provides a detailed assessment of activities, outputs and impacts for each BIO-EARN network country - Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda - following full completion of BIO-EARN's Phase II. Report Key Findings and Recommendations The overall objectives defined for BIO-EARN Phase II were to: Enable the countries in the region to develop biotechnologies and policies according to their own needs, abilities and opportunities. Promote collaboration in biotechnology, biosafety and biotechnology policy development to address key challenges and opportunities in the region. Foster communication between scientists, policy makers, biosafety regulatory officials and private sector nationally and regionally. The main finding that becomes apparent from the country assessments is that BIO-EARN strongly contributed towards these objectives. A summary of outputs and impacts by programme component substantiates this conclusion and is further supported by the more detailed country assessments (Annex 3 to 6). The reports also show that BIO-EARN supported activities and outputs were evenly distributed across the 4 countries, for which the regional coordinators and national focal points should be commended. In conclusion, the BIO-EARN Programme has - through human capacity building, infrastructure support, policy and networking support - been able to greatly strengthen eleven East African R&D institutions. As a result, these institutions are now better able to carry out advanced biotechnology R&D relevant to national needs. They are also, through the development of a regional interdisciplinary BIO-EARN R&D platform, better able to engage in regional and international research collaboration, which will be increasingly important to ensure sustainability, relevance, quality and impact of research efforts in the region. As in many complex programmes such as BIO-EARN, covering a broad range of actors and activities, areas for improvement are easily identified and have been reported in the external evaluation by Morris and Louwaars (2004). Some of them are reiterated in the country assessments, including: Unclear procedure for programme priority setting and research project selection Limited ownership of the programme at high political levels Key stakeholders not always involved No or partial implementation of planned activities. Download Full Report Synthesis of National Impact Reports for BIO-EARN Phase II (246KB PDF file) Find out more about BIO-EARN current Focus