The Second Regional Workshop on National Reporting of Basel Convention for Arab States

Venue: Hilton Alexandria Corniche

Address: 544 El-Gaish Rd, Alexandria Governorate 21611

Background:  One of the recommendations of the first Regional Workshop on National Reporting of Basel Convention for Arab States was a follow up to the first workshop with a second workshop in which there will be more focus on the electronic submitting system (ESM). This recommendation was second by a request from the CSC in its second meeting to hold this workshop, due to the strategic and political dimension of this specific topic.

Working Language: English only

Organizer: BCRC-Egypt with the assistance of SBC organized a two days Regional workshop in Alexandria, Egypt, in March, 2014, for the Arab states focal points of Basel Convention, who are in charge of filling and submitting the national report on behalf of their countries. The main target was to shed more light on the national reporting and its electronic submission system.

Meeting Objectives:  The workshop objectives were to raise the efficiency of focal points and homelands rationing officials for information gathering and preparation of national reports submitted electronically annually to the General Secretariat of Basel Convention, to identify of difficulties faced by a number of countries to provide information on the management of hazardous waste to public aspirations and in accordance with Article 13, paragraph 3, of the Convention, and to assist the participating countries in meeting their reporting obligations under Basel Convention.

Target Audience:  The workshop targeted the official National Focal points assigned by the Parties under article (5) of the Convention; or those, responsible for collection of data and information required for the national report. The workshop was attended by 16 participants from 15 Arab countries namely; Algeria, Kingdom of Bahrain, Republic of Djibouti, Arab Republic of Egypt, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanese Republic, Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Kingdom of Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Republic of the Sudan, Tunisian Republic, and Yemeni Republic. The 16 participants included 3 female participants in the workshop.

Outcome

The workshop successfully managed to define of difficulties faced by the Arab States to provide information on the overall management of hazardous waste and other waste, to assist the participating countries in meeting their reporting obligations under Basel Convention, to elaborate more details about the new electronic reporting system and to practice live trial for the electronic reporting system using several experiences of the Arab States. The Secretariat of Basel Convention (SBC) has presented the required technical support through presenting some presentations (through video conference facility) about the final updates of the state of the Arab states national reporting. A novel trend that BCRC-Egypt initiated in that workshop was to invite a world renowned expert in the field of HW management to be a guest of honor and keynote speaker through its events, to enhance the benefit trainees may gain from interacting with these experts. In this workshop, the invited guest of honor was Mrs. Katharina Kumar, the ex-Executive Secretary of the Basel Convention Secretariat. A main direct result of the two workshops BCRC-Egypt conducted about National Reporting was that 4 Arab countries submitted their national report to BS.

 Recommendations

• BCRC-Egypt should keep following up with the member countries about their national reporting status
• BCRC-Egypt should ask Basel Convention Secretariat to provide the Arab countries with the necessary technical support to assist them in their national reporting.
• BCRC-Egypt should continue offering the Arab countries with technical support through conducting more workshops on national reporting, especially the new electronic system, on a periodic basis.
• National focal points should pay more commitments towards collecting data and submitting their national report on time.
• Arab Countries which didn`t attend this workshop are strongly encouraged to approach BCRC-Egypt for technical support.

 Conclusive Remarks