Non governmental organizations take the initiative
Here's some background to the African Stockpiles Programme:
In 2000, negotiations that would eventually result in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) were coming to a close. Governments of the world recognized the need for a global mechanism to end the production of POPs chemicals and dispose of existing POPs chemical stockpiles. Most of the POPs covered by the Stockholm Convention are pesticides. At the same, African countries were requesting assistance to deal with their stockpiles of POPs pesticides.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Pesticides Action Network (PAN) proposed an ambitious undertaking to remove all obsolete pesticide stocks from Africa: the Africa Stockpiles Programme (ASP).
FAO plays a key role
Both WWF and PAN recognized that they could not fund or coordinate a continent-wide programme on their own. They quickly set about creating an international partnership that brought together many multinational organizations, international non-governmental organizations, governments and industry.
As the main technical agency working on pesticides management and obsolete pesticides issues, FAO has been involved right from the beginning of the project. FAO, along with the World Bank has worked to secure funding for the Programme.
Individual cleanup projects begin with a detailed inventory of stocks and their locations. This inventory is carried out by trained local personnel. Inventory information is stored in the Obsolete Pesticides Management System (OPMS). The OPMS is a web-based database software that FAO has developed over the course of its experience in pesticide disposal projects in Africa and elsewhere. The OPMS was launched in April 2006 and is now being used in Eritrea, Mali, and Tunisia to store Inventory Data and to conduct environmental risk assessments for Obsolete Pesticide Sites and Stores.
FAO, the pesticides industry and bilateral donor agencies provide technical support to countries where the cleanup activities are taking place. This technical support is coordinated through a technical support unit that is hosted by FAO. This unit also has the responsibility for ensuring that technical inputs meet the agreed standards of the Programme.
For more information about the African Stockpiles Programme, click on the text link or click link on the right.