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BRS TA Newsletter

Target countries for technical assistance activities

The proposed programme of work for 2012-2013 will focus on country--specific activities. The Secretariat will invite least developed countries and small island developing States that are parties to the Convention to request technical assistance in specific aspects of implementing the Convention. The Secretariat will respond to individual, country-specific requests, making use of its experience in providing technical assistance in previous periods, and liaise with regional experts, seeking their support in this activity. Technical assistance will also target the strengthening of regional participation and delivery, and cost-effective implementation of the Convention, through the increased use of existing UNEP and FAO regional capacities and networks, which are ideally positioned and equipped to support the delivery of technical assistance.

Working and collaborating with partners

The Secretariat will continue to seek opportunities to promote cooperation with international, regional and subregional organizations involved in chemicals management activities and encourage such organizations to integrate Convention issues into their work. These organizations will be informed about continuing activities and invited to participate in regional and subregional activities. In addition, efforts are under way to implement joint activities pursuant to the synergies decisions. These activities will be implemented in cooperation and coordination with the secretariats of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Cooperation with regional partners in 2012 and 2013 is foreseen as follows:

Regional and subregional Plant Production and Protection Officers of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) meet regularly. It is proposed that these regular meetings be extended by a day for discussions on implementation issues under the Convention;

The Secretariat will expand its collaboration with regional partners with work programmes pertinent to chemicals and pesticide management to promote the incorporation of the Convention’s objectives into their work programmes. Possible partners include the Asia and Pacific Plant Protection Commission, the Sahelian Pesticides Committee, the Southern African Development Community, the Central African Pesticides Committee and the Consultative Group of Pesticide Registrars in the Caribbean, in addition to non-governmental organizations with relevant work programmes. The Secretariat or a regional expert will participate in five meetings during 2012-2013. A limited number of designated national authorities from representative member countries would be sponsored to promote the inclusion of the Convention in the work programme of these commissions;

Industrial chemicals management covers a wide range of hazardous chemicals that do not fall within the purview of the Convention. To contribute to the effective management of industrial chemicals, therefore, the Convention will support and enhance the efforts of other lead organizations and institutions that have already taken steps to develop materials and establish projects that are currently providing technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of developing countries and countries with economies in transition to establish frameworks for the sound management of industrial chemicals. Organizations that will be supported and enhanced in their efforts include: the Chemicals Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, KEMI (Swedish Chemicals Agency), the German Agency for Technical Cooperation, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the World Health Organization, the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals, the United Nations Development Programme, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the chemicals programme of the Center for International Environmental Law, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the International Pesticides Elimination Network, the Basel and Stockholm conventions, and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management.

As a component of its field programme, FAO has a pesticide management programme that delivers technical assistance to many countries. Its support for the strengthening of countries’ regulatory frameworks, including through the revision of the legal and administrative basis for such frameworks and pre-registration and post-registration activities, affords an excellent opportunity for the Secretariat to include aspects of the Convention in the FAO technical assistance programme. It is envisaged that the Secretariat will participate in the FAO field programme and provide assistance to four countries focusing on elements directly relevant to the Convention.

Expressions of Interest

Parties who are interested in receiving support in implementing the Rotterdam Convention through the delivery of technical assistance activities can contact the Secretariat: pic@pic.int.

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