Technical Assistance

The provision of timely and appropriate technical assistance in response to requests from developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition is essential to the successful implementation of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions.

The overall goal of the technical assistance is to strengthen the capacities of Parties, particularly developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition, to implement the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions.

Achieving this goal means pursuing the following objectives under each convention:

Under the Basel Convention, the objective of the delivery of technical assistance is to support Parties in protecting  human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes through enhancing the capacities of Parties to implement control procedures for transboundary movements and to ensure the environmentally sound management of hazardous and other wastes, including prevention and minimization;

Under the Rotterdam Convention the objective of the delivery of technical assistance is to strengthen Parties’ capacities in promoting shared responsibility and cooperative efforts among Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm and to contribute to their environmentally sound use, by facilitating information exchange about their characteristics, by providing for a national decision-making process on their import and export and by disseminating these decisions to Parties;

Under the Stockholm Convention the objective of the delivery of technical assistance  is to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants through enhancing Parties’ capacities to develop legal and institutional frameworks and national implementation plans and addressing  technical issues pertaining to the chemicals listed in the annexes of the Convention; and

For cross-cutting issues among the three conventions, the objective of the delivery of technical assistance is to enhance the capacities of Parties to increase coordination and cooperation at the national level; to identify and monitor the attainment of needs of developing country Parties and Parties with economy in transition; to strengthen greater access to scientific understanding in developing countries to enhance informed decision-making on the implementation of the conventions; and to support activities with appropriate tools and methodologies.

At the 2017 Conference of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, the Technical Assistance Plan document was welcomed by the Parties. The document can be accessed here.

In light of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, the technical assistance activities seek to support Parties in integrating chemicals and wastes into national strategies for sustainable development. It also includes enabling activities that will support Parties to develop their statistical capacities on reporting with a view to making data and information available for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.