African Environment Ministers met recently to discuss the implementation of the NEPAD Environment Initiative’s action plan and to address engagement with other international environmental processes, including the development of a strategic approach to international chemicals management (SAICM), Africa’s strategy concerning disaster risk reduction and African’s input to the ongoing UNEP process on an Intergovernmental Strategic Plan for technology support and capacity building.

The Ministerial segment of the 10th regular session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) took place from 29-30 June in Sirte, Libya, and was preceded by a preparatory meeting that convened from 26-28 June.
During the session, African Ministers discussed issues relating to and adopted decisions on: the implementation of the action plan of the NEPAD environment initiative; the role of AMCEN in the implementation of the NEPAD environment initiative’s action plan; the AMCEN Constitution; and the status and use of the AMCEN general trust fund. Ministers also took decisions on the: development of a SAICM and other chemicals and hazardous waste management issues; phase-out of leaded gasoline in sub-Saharan Africa; draft Africa strategy for disaster reduction risk reduction; and Africa’s submission to the High-Level Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on an Intergovernmental Strategic Plan for technology support and capacity building (ISP).
On the development of a SAICM, ministers decided, inter alia, to emphasize the need for African Governments to prioritize sound chemicals management in national, subregional and regional planning, and to urge stakeholders to elaborate a comprehensive plan for enhanced capacity-building for developing countries in the development of a SAICM. Ministers further decided to urge the UNEP Governing Council to adopt a decision on undertaking the tasks assigned to it in ensuring the prevention of illegal international traffic in toxic and dangerous products.
On the ISP, ministers submitted the capacity building component of the Action Plan of the NEPAD Environment Initiative as African’s input to the work of the ISP and requested that the component be used as the basis of support for capacity building in Africa. The component outlines the principles on which a guiding framework for the ISP should be based, lists potential elements for the Strategic Plan, and identifies priority areas.
The session also concluded with the adoption of the Sirte Declaration on the Environment for Development, in which Ministers, inter alia:
* stress the urgent need to promote the integration of the environmental dimension into poverty reduction strategies;
* request the AMCEN President to develop a mechanism for consensus building, through transboundary projects, in the management of natural and shared resources;
* call upon the GEF to continue giving high priority to African countries in allocating financial resources for the successful implementation of the action plan to combat desertification;
* urge development partners to implement the WSSD decision to establish a world solidarity fund to eradicate poverty by providing the necessary resources to this fund; and
* call upon the AMCEN President in collaboration with the Minister responsible for the environment in Senegal to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Conference in December 2004 to review the implementation of the action plan of the NEPAD environment initiative.
Download the declaration and the adopted decisions.