The Wolof people of Western Africa often question the wisdom of clapping with one hand. The Malagasy have been famed for saying "A single bracelet does not jingle." It is a vain, vain endeavour, these sentiments intimate, to cross that torrential river as an individual when one could just hold hands with peers and wade across!

This is the reason why, ladies and gentlemen, this DrumBeat explores the opportunities that lie in potential harmonization of biotechnology regulation and establishment of universal biosafety frameworks among The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) member states.

In our Video of The Month, experts, including Dr John Mukuka, The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA), a specialized agency of COMESA, explain the need and inevitability of biotechnology in the region, and the benefits of removing barriers to trade of biotech products among COMESA member states, especially with a perennial eruption of food and disease crises this technology can greatly temper.

The Story of The Month is an account of COMESA member states' investment in developing a regional approach to biotechnology and biosafety, beginning with the Regional Approach to Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy in Eastern and Southern Africa (RABESA) and progressing to the COMESA Biotechnology and Biosafety Policy (COMBIP). It gives a crisp chronology of events and projects benefits if the tempo is maintained, or upped.

We also highlight discussions of a webinar we hosted earlier this month where young African women scientists showcased great resolve in tackling some local problems using technological innovations, engage farmers on the ravages of drought and what an alternative in biotech crops could have meant in this period, and congratulate Prof Vasey Mwaja who has a new appointment at the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI).

As you read this DrumBeat, join us in imagining this utopic future of a COMESA region where member states can jointly, and with little hassle, enjoy the benefits of a technology that is, clearly, both the present and the future!