In 2013, the Commission established its Team of Technical and Legal Experts on Access and Benefit-Sharing to help inform its intergovernmental technical working groups on this matter and to develop Elements for Domestic Implementation of Access and Benefit-Sharing for Different Subsectors of Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ABS Elements).

The ABS Expert Team replaced the Ad Hoc Technical Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing for Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture established by the Commission in 2011.

In 2018, at the Commission’s request, the Commission Secretariat held, in collaboration with the Secretariats of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the Convention on Biological Diversity, an International Workshop on Access and Benefit-Sharing for Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Workshop was convened assist countries to identify and raise awareness of distinctive features and special practices of genetic resources for food and agriculture in the context of the ABS Elements. The Workshop also provided outputs for elaboration into non-prescriptive explanatory notes describing, within the context of the ABS Elements, the distinctive features and specific practices of the different subsectors of genetic resources for food and agriculture.