Capacity building is required both, within government and civil society, in order to provide appropriate approaches to many aspects of the management of POPs. UNIDO is developing initiatives that promote capacity building for governments, sectoral institutions and wider stakeholders.
One of these initiatives is a GEF funded global project to strengthen the abilities of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to raise awareness of POPs issues at community level. It recognizes the important role that NGOs can play in promoting the protection of health and the environment from POPs chemicals and wastes.
An example is the UNIDO-executed non-combustion technology programme funded by the GEF. This programme will demonstrate commercially available technologies that destroy POPs without incineration. The demonstration will evaluate and seek to overcome potential technical, economic, regulatory and social barriers to the wider adoption of non-combustion POPs disposal.
Best Available Techniques (BAT):
BATs are the most effective and advanced stages in the development of activities and their methods of operation in order to reduce releases of POPs and their impact on the environment.
Best Environmental Practices (BEP) :
BEPs are applications of the most appropriate combination of environmental control measures and strategies.
Needs-driven capacity building:
The level of existing Cleaner Production (CP) know-how and the level of existing know-how, on and implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) is different in each country. The role of UNIDO's CP unit is to design and implement National and Regional CP Centres and Programmes that better reflect the needs of the countries and regions selected. The "tailor-made" CP programmes will allow each NCPC or NCPP to develop its national strategy, build its own expertise and involve the relevant national stakeholders at the right moment and at the right pace in order to ensure its ownership of the project. This will guarantee the appropriate adaptation of the chosen technologies to the local situation and the eventual sustainability of the NCPCs and NCPPs.
Building on existing national capacities and bringing together different stakeholders will result in a dynamic and innovative learning process and foster private-public partnership. It will strengthen innovative and entrepreneurial capacity and generate policies and policy instruments that will support productivity increase and market access of industry in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.
