When someone thinks about a mentor, a knowledgeable admired figurehead comes to mind. Others still may envision a step-by-step nurturing relationship where someone guides you every step of the way until you reach your goals. The Biosafety and Biosecurity (BSBS) mentorship does not stray far from this familiar understanding of a mentor.

The Biosafety and Biosecurity mentorship program is structured to support laboratories and facilities handling high consequence agents and toxins achieve minimum prescribed levels of BSBS standards. For Zambia, this prescribed national standard is contained on a checklist developed from a collation of the ISO 15190, ISO standard 15189, World Health Organization (WHO) Biosecurity Guidance and WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual Fourth Edition. The mentorship progresses in four phases depicted below: