UNEP LIRA Guidance

• UNEP-KemI Project on “Development of Legal and Institutional Infrastructures for the Sound Management of Chemicals in Developing Countries and Countries with Economies in Transition"

The pilot activities of the UNDP-UNEP Partnership Initiative clearly showed the need for strengthening national legal and institutional infrastructures. While these provide an enabling framework for sustained implementation of the national SMC policy, the increasing complexity of chemicals management often prevents national officers from progressing on this front.

In response, the Swedish Chemicals Agency (KEMI) and UNEP Chemicals Branch have therefore collaborated to develop a project to assist developing countries and countries with economies in transition in the expansion of such infrastructure, focusing on the initial preventive steps in the supply chain of chemicals that are taken before or when chemicals are placed on the market.

The project had three specific 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.

As a start, a series of regional workshops were held in four developing countries or countries with economies in transition. 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 for the elements of a toolkit to meet the needs and overcome the barriers identified.

Documents from each of the workshops are provided below.

Workshop 1: Riga, Latvia, on 7-8 December 2006
Draft agenda
Information for participants 
Draft proceedings 

Workshop 2: Bangkok, Thailand, on 24-25 May 2007
Draft proceedings 
Draft agenda
Information note 
Questions for the working group 

Workshop 3: Panama City, Panama, on 12-13 February 2008
Draft proceedings 
Draft agenda ; Espanol
Information for participants 

Workshop 4 : Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on 14-15 July 2008
Draft agenda
Information note 
Questions for the working group 

Building on the conclusions of the four regional workshops, a draft toolkit was developed on the development of legal and institutional infrastructures.

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