Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

other africa - related work outside the mfa work programme Emerging Environmental Issues The Africa Programme continues to explore the landscape for emerging and persistent environmental issues that re- quire awareness raising. Three potential topics are under consideration - the influence of environmental resources on the development of Africa’s infrastructure, environ- mental impacts of electronic waste in Africa, and possible impacts of the development of the oil and gas industry in East Africa’s Indian Ocean. A project proposal on the role of environmental resources in the development of Africa’s infrastructure was submit- ted to the African Development Bank following the short- listing of GRID-Arendal to bid for the project along with five other organizations. A decision on the proposal is still pending. Funding from other sources will also be explored. The extent of electronic waste in Africa is not well docu- mented although there is growing interest by the private sector to find better ways of collecting and reusing the waste. GRID-Arendal will conduct a study on electronic waste in 2014, while also prospecting for large-scale project development under the Environmental Crime portfolio. Following a request by coastal countries in East Africa, GRID-Arendal and the Nairobi Convention Secretariat have prepared a project proposal on the potential impacts of the development of the oil and gas industry off the In- dian Ocean coast in East Africa. Funding options will be explored during the course of 2014. FK Exchange The 2011/12 round of the FK exchange was successfully concluded. While all the six participants benefited from a skills exchange during their posting abroad, it is also worth noting that all were able to undertake very inspiring personal projects in areas such as landslides in Uganda, 91 environmental outreach activities targeting schools in and around Arendal, and development of e-learning products.

components of the project, while IPEN provided technical and scientific support.

The project on ‘Toxic Metals in Children’s Products’ 92 ana- lysed 569 different children’s products, mainly toys, avail- able on the market in 2012 in 6 countries of the EECCA region (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine). 93 Measurements focused on 6 heavy met- als - lead, mercury, arsenic, antimony, cadmium and chro- mium. Approximately 27% of the products were found to contain at least one toxic metal and 13% contained two or more toxic metals, increasing their potential for harm.

Samples of toys, contaminated with heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium)

A media campaign was designed to attract public attention and initiate discussions with concerned audiences. Two sets of outreach activities were organised. The first took place in Moscow from 11-14 December 2012 and involved a press conference at the Journalists Union, a public/live testing on BBC News, and round tables in Moscow Duma, the Mendeleev Institute of the Russian Academy of Sci- ences and the State Duma. More than 300 media sources published the findings in the 6 project countries. Since then various secondary publications have cited the pro- ject results (for example, the Widerøe in-flight magazine in the fall of 2013). In Russia an important outcome was the circulation of the results through the country’s largest consumer organization – the Consumers’ Union of Rus- sia. The second event was a regional conference in Yere- van, Armenia on 17 December 2012 when representatives from all project stakeholders discussed appropriate policy measures and made recommendations to governments. 92. The project had a total budget of USD160,000 and was jointly (50/50) funded with IPEN. 93. The study was carried out under the auspices of the IPEN, EcoAccord (Russia), the Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment, MAM-86 (Ukraine), the Centre for Environmental Solutions (Belarus), Independent Environmental Expertise (Kyrgyzstan), Greenwomen (Kazakhstan), and GRID-Arendal.

9.2 EURASIA

 Chemical safety in ODA countries of EECCA region Two projects, linked to the UNEP Chemicals Branch, were carried out under a partnership agreement with the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN). GRID- Arendal coordinated the communication and information

91. http://www.grida.no/africa/focus2.aspx?id=5322

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