Venues: Eritrea: Ginda, Asmara, Ethiopia: Bishoftu, Addis Ababa, Rwanda: Musanze, Kigali
Background information: The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade establishes an international mechanism to regulate the trade of pesticides and industrial chemicals that are contained in its Annex III. Despite the entry into force in 2004 of the Rotterdam Convention and the progressive inclusion of chemicals to its Annex III, most developing countries lack capabilities to assess national exposure and conduct risk evaluation of chemicals, necessary to take import decisions for Annex III chemicals.
Chemicals that have been banned or severely restricted for health or environmental reasons are listed in Annex III based on the notifications of Final Regulatory Actions (FRAs) by the Parties. Some developing countries have very limited capacity to assess exposures, evaluate and undertake risk evaluations and assessments that are scientifically sound. Thus, the notifications under the Convention appear to decline, both in number and quality depending on the Annex I and Annex II criteria of the Convention.
The reduction of chemical risks is the ultimate goal of the environmentally sound management of all chemicals. Risk reduction options include fundamental arrangements such as chemical safety legislation and enforcement, as well as other basic national means for the management of chemicals, adequate labeling and responsible care and stewardship by industry.
A major outcome of this project could be an increased number of Import Responses for new chemicals (e.g. PFOS, octabromodiphenyl ether and pentabromodiphenyl ether) and/or notifications of Final Regulatory Actions (FRAs), due to the increased knowledge on how to evaluate and manage risks of any chemical and make notifications of FRAs to the Secretariat. Recipient countries will benefit from user-friendly access to electronic Toolkits and scientific information for decision-making on hazardous chemicals and pesticides.
Organizer: The national follow up workshops will be co-organized with the Basel/Stockholm Convention Regional Centre in South Africa also known as the Africa Institute (AI), and the respective DNAs, in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Rwanda.
The European Union kindly provided funding for this project.
Working languages: English
Objectives of the workshops:
- To facilitate the strengthening of the capacities of Parties from developing countries to assess and manage risks, prepare and communicate import responses and take scientifically sound decisions in making final regulatory actions for chemicals that will meet Annex II criteria of the Rotterdam Convention.
- Raise awareness on hazardous industrial chemicals through the use of the globally harmonized system of labelling chemicals (GHS).
- Provide tools and approaches for Parties to use in the application of precautionary principles in industrial and pesticide chemicals management; e.g. Rotterdam Convention Industrial Chemicals Management Toolkit, WHO Human Health Risk Assessment Toolkit, Final Regulatory Action Evaluation Toolkit, IOMC Toolbox for Decision-Making in Chemicals Management, FAO Pesticides Registration Toolkit and LIRA Guidance and other e-learning tools.
- Facilitate the development of frameworks and implementation plans for the lifecycle management of industrial chemicals.