The resumed ninth session of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing (MLS) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA or Treaty) is expected to conclude negotiations on a package of measures to enhance the functioning of the MLS.

In June 2019, the Working Group reached tentative agreement to amend Annex I of the Treaty (list of crops in the MLS), to include all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture under the management and control of parties and in the public domain, in ex situ conditions, while allowing for reasoned national exemptions regarding a limited number of native species. The Working Group also made significant progress on revising the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA), including the envisaged subscription system for access to MLS crops, and access to the MLS with no subscription, as an exception (dubbed as single access system). Outstanding matters relate to the specific rates for benefit-sharing payments, and benefit-sharing from transfers of genetic sequence data (also known as digital sequence information). The meeting was suspended, to allow for three additional days of negotiations, from 24-26 October 2019. They will be preceded by regional consultations, on 23 October. The outcome of the negotiations will be forwarded to the eighth session of the Governing Body, to be held from 11-16 November 2019.

The Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the MLS was first established by fifth meeting of the Governing Body (September 2013, Muscat, Oman), with the mandate to develop measures to increase user-based payments and contributions to the Treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund, as a priority, as well as additional measures to enhance the functioning of the MLS. The Working Group is composed of up to 27 regional representatives: up to five each from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean; up to three from the Near East; and up to two each from North America and Southwest Pacific. Up to two representatives from each of the following groups may participate as observers: civil society organizations; the seed industry; farmers’ organizations; and the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers.