African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) Strategic Plan for the Nelson Mandela Genomes Initiative for Conservation of Nature

Characterizing and preserving biodiversity of plants, animals, and microorganisms present in our ecosystems is a key challenge that must be addressed as part of delivering the African Union Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030. Biodiversity in Africa must be leveraged to deliver interventions that strengthen the Agri-food systems and enhance biodiversity conservation efforts. African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) is a coordinated pan-African effort to build capacity (and infrastructure) to generate, analyze and deploy genomics data for the improvement and sustainable use of biodiversity and agriculture across Africa. The AfricaBP 2030 Strategic Plan for the Nelson Mandela Genomes Initiative for Conservation of Nature builds on the position paper published in Nature in 2022 titled – “Africa: Sequence 100,000 species to safeguard biodiversity”. The 2030 vision highlights AfricaBP’s achievements in the last 2 years of its existence and introduces the key strategic objectives of AfricaBP for the next 10 years. A key step in the development of AfricaBP is the hosting agreement by the Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation) under the established Alliance for Biodiversity Genomics in Africa. The AfricaBP – SFA alliance will deliver the joint missions through regional nodes across Africa: University of South Africa (UNISA), University of Port Harcourt (UniPort), Mohammed V University in Rabat, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). This Strategic Plan (for the Nelson Mandela Genomes Initiative for Conservation of Nature) intends to outline AfricaBP’s focus as a research and innovation community of practice, capacity building, knowledge transfer and innovations (including commercial), strategic partnerships and science collaborations, focused on leveraging genomic capabilities for biodiversity assessment and use in Africa. The Strategic Plan is underpinned by AfricaBP’s unique value proposition and strategic position as an enabler of genomics practices, integrator of discovery science, applications to deliver crop, fungi, animal, and livestock genetic innovations across Africa.