Overview
The overall goal of UNITAR's Persistent Organic Pollutants activities is to provide support to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to take measures to eliminate or reduce the release of POPs into the environment. The POPs Programme Area, which is located within and draws upon methodologies developed through UNITAR's Chemicals and Waste Management Programme, aims to assist countries to strengthen the fundamentals of chemicals management in a number of areas; to provide technical assistance in specialised areas of POPs management; and to encourage integrated approaches involving all relevant ministries and stakeholders.
UNITAR delivers POPs-related assistance to countries in close cooperation with IOMC Participating Organisations, UNDP and countries, with technical expertise and financial resources dedicated to addressing challenges posed by POPs. UNITAR also executes projects (in whole or in part) on behalf of GEF implementing agencies; and co-executes enabling activities at the national level in direct partnership with governments. The POPs Programme Area could be viewed in terms of "planning" and "implementation" activities.
Planning Activities
UNITAR provides a variety of services in support of planning for Stockholm Convention implementation, such as skills building for action plan development; assistance to countries in developing National Implementation Plans; support for National Profile development/updating; and building capacity within countries to undertake a systematic process for risk management decision making for priority chemicals.
Implementation Activities
UNITAR also supports a wide range of Stockholm Convention implementation projects provides, including PCB elimination, legislative development and infrastructure building, and other institutional strengthening efforts (such as the design and implementation of Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers and the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals as part of Stockholm Convention implementation).
More About the POPs Programme
To learn more about UNITAR's involvement in international activities related to the Stockholm Convention and future directions for the Programme, please click here. To view various POPs-related guidance material, please click here.
UNITAR recognises and appreciates the financial contributions of the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Switzerland, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Environment Programme to UNITAR's Persistent Organic Pollutants activities. |
