By christelle.rabil@croptrust.org
a day ago

A landmark gathering of 41 genebank professionals elevates data management skills and regional collaboration in Southern Africa.

In early June 2025, Johannesburg, South Africa, welcomed the largest-ever GOAL Data Management (GOAL-DM) Workshop, bringing together 41 professionals from 25 genebanks. Surpassing even the gathering in Bogotá last November, this southern Africa edition of GOAL saw more people attending and also more countries represented, with 21 from all around the African continent.

Who took part?

• National genebanks of Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia

• CGIAR centres: AfricaRice, ILRI, IITA, CIFOR-ICRAF

What did they do?

Over five days of interactive sessions, attendees:

• Explored Genesys features for publishing passport data and querying trait data

• Learned about GGCE to bolster genebank’s internal data management

With thanks to…

We are grateful to National Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NPGRC) of South Africa for welcoming us, to SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre (SPGRC) for their logistical support, and to the the Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture (BMEL) of the Federal Republic of Germany for supporting the organization of this event under the project “Enhancing genebank data management in SADC with GGCE.”

We look forward to the next steps in strengthening plant genetic conservation across Southern Africa, and beyond!

For a look back at our previous workshop, in Latin America, see: Highlights from the 2024 GOAL Workshop in Bogotá.