As the world moves towards an international, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, IUCN and GRID-Arendal partner in a new project called AFRIPAC aimed to empower five African nations´ negotiating skills for a strong Global Treaty on plastic pollution.
AFRIPAC will increase knowledge and collaboration in Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. Strengthening the negotiation skills of national representatives is key to ensuring that the international, regional, and national legal and policy frameworks relevant to the prevention and management of plastic pollution, including marine litter, are implemented well. Their understanding of the negotiation processes, national obligations, and needed guidance for national action planning will be linked to the proposed global instrument’s focus on improving the circular economy and waste management. The project will remove barriers to facilitate effective action.
Developing countries face unique challenges and often lack specialised skills to negotiate these types of treaties. To be effective participants in the UN global plastics treaty negotiations, Small Island Developing States and Least Developed countries will need to have access to the most coherent and relevant knowledge and data to support their positions.
This project aims to support the five countries to:
- Ensure global commitments to end plastic pollution are strengthened,
- Improve National action plans and policies, and
- Align global policy to the national and regional instruments to prevent marine litter
Below are some products that GRID-Arendal has created under the AFRIPAC project
Zero Draft Element Interactive Infographic: This interactive infographic was developed as part of the AFRIPAC project, responding to the needs of the five focal countries in West Africa: Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and Sao Tome & Principe.
Zero Draft Elements Interactive Table: (Available in English, French & Portuguese) GRID-Arendal has developed a synopsis of the Zero draft text of the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. This enables negotiators and stakeholders to engage with the zero draft text ahead of INC-3 in Nairobi, Kenya, and beyond.
INC - Info sheets for negotiators: (Available in English, French & Portuguese) To increase knowledge of technical elements under the Plastics Treaty, GRID-Arendal has developed information sheets for negotiators to support the INC negotiation rounds. The sheets provide negotiators with the latest science on alternative plastics and substitutes, a circular economy, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Multi-stakeholder forums. More knowledge products will be developed, following the needs of the five focal countries in West Africa under the AFRIPAC project: Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and Sao Tome & Principe.
Tags:
plastic pollution
Africa
capacity building
marine litter
plastics treaty
