In April, BioInnovation Africa capacitated more than fifty experienced trainers from the private sector, civil society, government and academia in Cameroon, Madagascar and Namibia to use BioInnovation Academy training material and knowledge products.
The three-day Training-of-Trainer workshops (ToT) enhanced the participants’ understanding of relevant thematic areas and didactical approaches when training Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IP&LC), academics, regulators, and business leaders in biotrade. The workshops took place in Okahandja (Namibia, 1-3 April), Ampefy (Madagscar, 14-16 April) and Edea (Cameroon, 22-24 April). Furthermore, BioInnovation Africa collaborates with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) - a subregional technical support center of the CBD - as well as the African Leadership University (ALU) to strengthen training capacities also in other African countries.
The BioInnovation Academy – Scaling-up for increased sustainability and impact
The BioInnovation Academy is an initiative to strengthen national capacities to promote sustainable biodiversity-based value chains. It builds on a comprehensive training package of technical manuals, methodological instructions, and supplementary training materials such as handouts, exercises etc. to conduct trainings on six thematic modules. Until the end of 2025, BioInnovation Africa (BIA) supports the application of the training materials in trainings of the trainers who participated in the ToT workshops. The BioInnovation Academy’s ToT approach will be fortified and continued beyond BIA’s project duration by six atingi online courses – both in English and in French – that will be published on the atingi platform soon and are free of charge.
The BioInnovation Academy draws on the training experience gained during the implementation of the BioInnovation Africa project (2019-2025), the ABS Capacity Development Initiative (2006-2025), and other GIZ projects that promote sustainable value chains. As the BioInnovation Academy is a result of the BioInnovation Africa project, it is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
July 2025