The Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the Multilateral System (MLS) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) made progress on technical matters and saw “more concrete engagement with ideas that can enable consensus.” To pave the way for discussions at the meeting of the Treaty’s Governing Body in November, the Standing Group of Legal Experts will reflect on the revised text from – and questions raised during – the Working Group’s 14th meeting.

“Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) are at the heart of sustainable agriculture and global food security,” the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) writes in its summary report. The process to enhance the Treaty’s MLS of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) dates back to 2013, when the Working Group focused on increasing user-based payments to the Treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF). Twelve years later, the upcoming 11th meeting of the Treaty’s Governing Body (GB 11) in November marks the end of the Working Group’s mandate.

Over the years, the Working Group has conducted a significant amount of work around the package of measures aimed at enhancing the MLS. These include a draft resolution, a draft revised Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA), and a draft text for an amendment of Annex I (list of crops in the MLS). According to ENB, many in attendance agreed that “the time has come for a political decision on the entire package of measures.”

The revision of the SMTA’s payment structure and rates aims to ensure user-based payments, badly lacking under the current system. This is a priority for developing countries. The expansion of the list of crops in the MLS, called for by developed countries, is aimed at promoting facilitated access to a broader pool of PGRFA. More recent negotiations, according to ENB, have also addressed benefit-sharing from digital sequence information/genetic sequence data (DSI/GSD).

Acknowledging principled differences remaining on practically all major issues, the ENB summary notes advancements on technical aspects of the SMTA and on the implementation and review of the new system, as well as an open discussion on payment rates – the first to occur in recent years. A “partial subscription” was put forward as a bridging option to reconcile views in support of a subscription-only system and those preferring a dual system that includes subscription and a possibility for “single access.”

“For a long time, the Treaty provided a unique example of a multilateral ABS mechanism,” the ENB analysis of the meeting notes. Now, multilateral ABS mechanisms have been agreed under the World Health Organization (WHO), in relation to pathogens with pandemic potential, under the Agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), and under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which has established a global multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of DSI/GSD on genetic resources. ENB highlights the need for the Treaty to not only “ensure coherence and mutual supportiveness with the CBD, but also to reassure parties that it remains the best-suited space for the regulation of food and agriculture.”

Preceded by regional and interregional consultations on 6 July, the 14th meeting of the Working Group convened in Lima, Peru, from 7-11 July 2025. Further regional and interregional consultations are expected to take place in the run-up to GB 11. [ENB Coverage of 14th Meeting of ITPGRFA Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the MLS]