OPCW Workshop for Senior Laboratory Managers in Africa

The OPCW held a three-day workshop for Senior Laboratory Managers in the Africa Region from 25 to 27 June 2012 at the headquarters in The Hague. The workshop was opened by the OPCW Deputy Director-General, Mrs. Grace Asirwatham, and attended by 15 experts from 12 States Parties.*

The event was part of the OPCW’s Programme to Strengthen Cooperation with Africa (“the Africa Programme”) and sponsored through a voluntary contribution from The Kingdom of Norway. It followed up a similar three-day workshop held in Mombasa, Kenya in March 2011 to promote the exchange of ideas among stakeholders in the Africa region, including chemical industry associations and regional and international institutions. 

The workshop developed criteria for the identification of potential regional resource partners that could partner with the Technical Secretariat in capacity building activities such as training, research, workshops and seminars. Centres were proposed that could pilot the concept of regional resource partners in the thematic areas identified during the Mombasa meeting.

Participating experts noted the diversity and expansive nature of the African continent, and underscored the differentiated and uneven development of chemical laboratories in countries of the region. They recognised that some laboratories already have some capacity and others have potential to become centres for regional development and activities to support implementation of the Convention, in particular Article XI. The experts also discussed strategies to equip and upgrade regional laboratories so that they can build a network of regional resource partners, focusing on various topics of relevance in the Africa region.

* Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya (2), Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa (2), Sudan, Sweden, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zimbabwe.   

Categories: Africa, National implementation