Pretoria bcrc business plan for 2005-06, date 15 July 2004
BUSINESS PLAN
FOR
2005-2006
Table of contents
Page
1. Contact details………………………………………………….. 3
2. Executive summary…………………………………………….. 5
3. National Focal points for the Basel Convention………………. 7
4. Regional needs Assessment…………………………………….. 8
5. BCRC Institutional strengthening…………………………….. 12
6. Vision……………………………………………………………. 16
7. Objectives……………………………………………………….. 17
8. Planned activities……………………………………………….. 18
9. Outputs………………………………………………………….. 29
10. Endorsements……………………………………………………. 31
11. Assumptions and uncertainties…………………………………. 33
12. Financial plan for the period 2005-2006………………………. 34
13. Monitoring and evaluation……………………………………… 36
Annexes………………………………………………………………. 40
A-Names and Addresses of Focal points……………………………. 41
B- Tables for evaluation of External, Human and Financial Resources 46
C- Country Responses………………………………………………… 51
D- Summary of work plan……………………………………………. 69
E- Summary of Budget……………………………………………….. 71
1. Contact Details, Name and Address of the Centre
(a) Contact Person
Dr John Mbogoma
Executive Director
(b) Physical Address
Basel Convention Regional Centre
(For English Speaking African Countries)
C/O CSIR
Brummeria
Meiring Naude Road
Block 4, Room 130
Pretoria
Republic of South Africa
(c) Postal Address
P.O BOX 109
Silverton
Pretoria
0127
Republic of South Africa
(d) Telephone/Fax/E-Mail
Tel: 27-12-349-1130
Fax: 27-12-349-1043
E-mail:
(e) Website: www.baselpretoria.org.za
1.1 Abbreviations
BAT Best Available Technologies
BC Basel Convention
BCRC Basel Convention Regional Centre
BPEO Best Practicable Environmental Option
COP Conference of the Parties
DANIDA Danish International Development Agency
DEAT Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (South Africa)
ESM Environmentally Sound Management
GDP Gross Domestic Product
JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency
HZW Hazardous Waste
HZWM Hazardous Waste Management
MEAs Multilateral Environmental Agreements
NA Needs Assessment
NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development
NGO Non Governmental Organisation
PCB Polychlorinated Biphenyls
SBC Secretariat of Basel Convention
SADC Southern Africa Development Community
TOR Terms of Reference
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
WSSD World Summit for Sustainable Development
ZERI Zero Emissions Research Initiative
2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.1 Introduction
The decision to establish Basel Convention Regional Centres worldwide was taken by the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention pursuant to Article 14 of the Convention which calls for the establishment of such centers to cater for capacity building in developing countries and economies in transition to be to tackle the technical, legal and institutional requirements for implementation of the Convention. The Pretoria BCRC has been in operation from July 2000 and has been guided by the needs assessment (NA) conducted in 2001. Initial finances came from DANIDA, South African Government, Japanese Government and a eight countries in the English speaking African Region.
2.2 The main vision of the Centre
To be a reliable centre of excellence relevant to the dynamic needs of the English speaking African Region in their quest to manage hazardous waste and other wastes in an environmentally and economically sound manner
2.3 Achievements so far
The capacity building activities have benefited all the 21 English Speaking African countries, 14 of which are SADC members. A Total number of 500 were trained of which ladies comprise 128 (about 26%) for the period Nov 2001 to September 2003. The Centre’s assessment of this phase indicates that awareness has been on a gradual increase. From the assessments of the training and awareness activities carried out so far, it is evident that more has to be done for the next two years through consolidating the gains already made in the first phase in line with the demands of the Region..
2.4 The key activities, Outputs, Work plan and the Budget under the 2005-06 Business plan
Based on the foundation that has been laid already, coupled with recent inputs from the 52% of the countries (11 countries) in the Region (Annex C) a business plan has been formulated for the period 2005-2006. It supports a number of programmes and will centre around the following major three categories as follows:
Table 2.1: Key project activities and outputs under the three categories of activities
Category / Project Activities / Project output1. Capacity building of the Regional Centre / 1 Capacity building for staff / Trained Centre staff
2 Dev of Resource Centre / Developed Resource Centre
3 Funding of Backstopping Centre costs / Reports on backstopped project activities
2. Implementation of the Obligations of the Convention / 1Education and Training / Trained experts, Trained trainers, New short courses developed and tested
2 Awareness / A number of officials benefited from the awareness
3 HZW Curriculum Development / A Curriculum developed and piloted in the Region
4 Information Management System / Developed authoritative data base, skills in using it for Regional experts (including the media)
3. The Environmentally sound management of Basel Convention priority waste streams / 1 Health care management / A Report on Best available practices in health care waste
2 Best practices in solid waste management / A Report on Best practices in solid waste management
3 Research on technologies for contaminated sites / A strategy for application of biological technologies which are cost effective within the African setting.
4 Electronic waste / Report on best approaches in electronic waste management
5 Training on safe management of obsolete pesticides / Trained experts on the management of obsolete pesticides
Table 2. 2: Summary of the Work Plan- expressed in months
Category / Project activities / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 241. Capacity building of the Regional Centre / 1 Capacity building for staff
2 Dev of Resource Centre
3 Funding of Backstopping Centre costs
2. Implementation of the Obligations of the Convention / 1Education and Training
2 Awareness
3 HZW Curriculum Development
4 Information Management System
3. The Environmentally sound management of Basel Convention priority waste streams / 1 Health care management
2 Best practices in solid waste management
3 Research on technologies for contaminated sites
4 Electronic waste
5 Training on safe management of obsolete pesticides
Table 2. 3 summary of the Projected Budget:
Category / Total (USD) / %1. Capacity building of the Regional Centre / 683,000 / 19.8
2. Implementation of the Obligations of the Convention / 1,970,000 / 57.2
3. The Environmentally sound management of Basel Convention priority waste streams / 794,000 / 23.0
GRAND TOTAL / 3,447,000 / 100
2.5. Results after two years
It is evident from the above that at the end of the two year period, the Centre would added value and have contributed significantly to the African Region to enable countries tackle relevant technical, legal and institutional issues central to the implementation of the Basel Convention, MEAs and NEPAD Environmental Initiatives in line with the principles of Environmentally Sound Management of Hazardous Waste. The pool of trainers produced in this period within those specific areas, would be considerable and would contribute significantly and enhance the capacity of these countries in Africa to undertake these responsibilities.
3. NATIONAL FOCAL POINTS FOR THE BASEL CONVENTION
These are reflected in ANNEX A . Below is a map showing the coverage of the Pretoria Basel Centre.
Fig 3. 1: COUNTRIES BEING SERVED BY THE PRETORIA-BCRC
4. REGIONAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT
4.1 Introduction:
The Regional Needs assessment was first conducted in 2001 covering the whole region of the English speaking African countries. From 2001, a number of capacity building activities had been initiated to address the issues identified. The figure below show the status of management of Hazardous waste in the Region as at 2001.
Figure 4.1 Rating of Current Regional Hazardous Waste Management Capacity
For the three years from 2000 to 2003, a number of capacity building activities have been carried out to address the key issues which were identified in 2001, a lot remains to be done as confirmed through responses from countries in July 2004 (see Annex C) and the needs assessment now reflects as follows:
4.2 Priority of Hazardous Waste.
The region comprises a diversity of countries, some of which rank amongst the poorest in the world. Most of the countries share similar socio-economic problems such as large foreign debts, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficient financial and human resources to address public needs. The countries which have been under war such as Sierra Leone and Liberia, pose huge challenges compared to the rest and hence special attention. In view of the plethora of other more pressing needs, the management of hazardous waste is accorded a low priority as reflected by the magnitude of resources and level of attention that are presently being allocated to the issue. The main categories of hazardous waste that are of concern include medical waste, pesticides, PCBs, and oil. Many of the countries have also expressed concern about wet and dry batteries and their disposal.
In World terms the generation of HZW within the English speaking African countries is relatively low. This is also reflected by low quantities of imports and exports. However these countries are part of the globe as such they have a potential to be vulnerable. Nevertheless, based on the increase in activity that has been applied to the management of HZW by most countries during the past eight years, it is evident that International Treaties such as the Basel Convention, have, at the very least, succeeded in placing HZW on the environmental management agenda of the signatory countries. The BCRC as a Regional Centre, has, through various targeted capacity building activities been able to raise the profile further of the Basel Convention to the member countries. The starting point were programmes of awareness raising in nature to the middle management officials and key decision makers. There is still a lot to go to have National institutions working closely at the National level coherently on the HZW issue
4.3 Commonality of HZW Problems and strategies to combat them.
There is a commonality to the HZWM problems experienced by countries of the region and therefore the generic products and services to be rendered by the BCRC will be applicable throughout the region. Many countries to date do not have strategies for the management of Hazardous wastes. The way forward is through comprehensive sharing of expertise between those who have managed to develop them and those who have not. (Through the questionnaires sent out to countries in July 2004, still confirm this need.)
4.4 Hazardous Waste versus General Waste.
General waste and its environmental impacts is a common problem throughout the region. Because hazardous waste management forms part of general waste management, it is not possible to separate the two into distinct issues. Therefore, hazardous waste will be unlikely to receive any focused attention, or higher priority, until the status of general waste management has improved considerably. Projects and activities that focus on hazardous waste will be more effective if they are seen as being an integral part of total waste management. There are, nevertheless, specific categories of hazardous waste that do not have strong links with general waste (e.g. medical waste, oil, pesticides, industrial and laboratory chemicals) and separate systems and projects can be developed independently. For this reason, a project 2 under category 3 (The environmentally sound management of Basel Convention priority waste streams) has been included which aims at capturing the successful approaches and experiences gained in the course of implementation of general waste management in a number of cities and municipalities with a view of establishing approaches which could make management of HZW a success.
4.5 HZWM Legislation and its enforcement
Legislation related to HZWM is mostly in place in most countries but is scattered around so many pieces of sectoral legislations. The challenge still remains “ How to create an umbrella Law on Environment which governs the environmental issues holistically”. Implementation and enforcement remain poor and this is attributed to a number of reasons, such as inadequate resources, inadequate training of staff, in some cases the low priority accorded to the HZW issues. Capacity building for Customs and law enforcement officers is still a major need.
4.6 Importance of Linkages and Networks.
It was realised that the physical distances between the BCRC headquarters in Pretoria and its prospective clients are enormous. From a manpower and financial perspective it is impractical for the BCRC to become directly involved in all aspects of training and technology transfer within each of the stakeholder countries. The original project concept of harnessing and developing human resources within each country through the establishment of a regional network of resource persons and linkage institutions remain the most feasible implementation approach by which the BCRC’s objectives can be achieved.
It was noted that there was poor networking and functional relations between government, industry, academic institutions, Non-Governmental Organisations and Community Based Organisations, with little knowledge transfer or sharing of information, dissemination of lessons learned and best practices among national stakeholders. Moreover, the involvement of academic and training institutions in knowledge transfer is minimal. Hence, considerable attention in 2001 and 2002 was focused at laying a sound foundation of building a trust between the focal points and the rest of the institutions within each country through a programme which brought them together where they were encouraged to develop a programme where each stakeholders’ role was discussed and agreed upon bilaterally. This arrangement was built on trust and the realisation that it was the obligation of a country to utilise its meagre human resources efficiently. Identification by the focal points the key National collaborating institutions was country driven. Building on this, training of trainers programme was piloted in 2003 with a view to establish the gaps towards developing appropriate leaner centred short term and long term programmes. Currently there a number of Regional experts who have graduated from the pilot BCRC TOT courses and are now engaged in delivering BCRC courses in the Region such as South Africa and Botswana. This process is gradual and has to be nurtured..
4.7 Competent Authorities and Focal Points.