UNEP-KemI Project - Background

The UNEP-Chemicals project on “Development of Legal and Institutional Infrastructures for the Sound Management of Chemicals in Developing Countries and Countries with Economies in Transition” is an integral part of the mainstreaming process. For the integration of sound management of chemicals into the development agenda to be effective, having in place relevant and efficient national regulations and infrastructures is required.

The general purpose of this project is therefore to assist developing countries and countries with economy in transition in the process of establishing these infrastructures, taking into account their specific needs and priorities.

To attain this general goal, the project has three objectives:

1. Identify and assess the needs and barriers (excluding financing concerns) for the development of chemicals control legal and institutional infrastructure in developing countries and countries with economies in transition;
2. Develop a toolkit for facilitating national legal and institutional infrastructures development and test the toolkit in a number of countries from the four UN regions, focusing on developing countries and countries with economies in transition; and
3. Ensure that the toolkit for aiding the development of national institutions and legal infrastructures explicitly meets the needs of national governments.

To achieve these objectives, the project has three components linked to each other by a linear sequence – therefore referred to as phases – and directly related to each aim. The first component, Phase 1, consisted of a series of regional workshops held in four developing countries or CEITs, namely Latvia, Thailand, Panama and Tanzania. These workshops were held to identify and assess the needs and non-financial barriers for the development of national institutions and legal infrastructures in these countries, together with a discussion and recommendation of for the elements of a toolkit to meet the needs and overcome the barriers identified.

Building on the conclusions of the four regional workshops, Phase 2 consists of the development of a toolkit on development of legal and institutional infrastructures and subsequent testing in countries.

Following the development of a first draft of the toolkit, Phase 3 will consist of a discussion of the results from the testing of the toolkit in countries in order to identify whether there is a need for amendments to the toolkit.

The KemI-UNEP project on “Development of Legal and Institutional Infrastructures for the Sound Management of Chemicals in Developing Countries and Countries with Economies in Transition” forms a complement to the project on Development and Testing of Guidance on Economic Instruments project. Taken together, the two projects will give policymakers the tools which they can use for mainstreaming the Sound Management of Chemicals at the national level, as being implemented in pilot countries within the UNDP-UNEP Partnership Initiative.

Detailed information on each of the component of this project can be found by clicking on the links below.

• Phase 1: Regional Workshops
• Phase 2: Development and Field Testing of a Toolkit
• Phase 3: Discussion of the Results of the Field Testing of the Toolkit and Identification of Needs for Improvements