Chairperson, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Dear Colleagues,
It is a pleasure to address the Eleventh meeting of the Steering Committee of the OPCW Africa Programme.
At the outset, I wish to thank you, Ambassador Francis Kotia of Ghana, for your leadership to guide the work of this Committee meeting and for your generosity dedicating time and effort to chair this meeting under this special circumstance.
I also wish to extend a warm welcome to all Committee members and observers. Your engagement is highly valued and integral to the success of this important initiative.
Excellency,
The Secretariat remains strongly committed to the Africa region through the Africa Programme, which is designed to offer tailored support to African States Parties in implementing the Convention.
Since the last Committee meeting on 18 November 2024, the Secretariat has advanced the sixth phase of the Programme, responding to the region’s particular needs.
In total, the Secretariat has organised 30 activities involving participation from African States Parties.
Half of these activities were organised specifically for the region.
Some 465 participants from 46 African States Parties, representing all subregions of the continent, have benefitted from this support.
During the reporting period the Secretariat’s activities focused particularly on advancing the adoption of comprehensive national legislation implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention in the Africa region.
In this context, the Secretariat convened a landmark Conference on advancing the implementation of the Convention in Africa in April.
This conference took place in Windhoek, in collaboration with the Government of Namibia.
I am grateful for the cooperation extended by Namibia for this important activity.
The event gathered representatives from 23 of the 27 African States Parties that do not yet have comprehensive implementing legislation.
The Deputy Director-General, Ambassador Odette Melono, opened the event in person, highlighting the Secretariat’s steadfast commitment to assisting African Member States in further strengthening their national implementation of the Convention.
On 3 June, I travelled to Lisbon, Portugal, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the OPCW and the Organisation of Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (The CPLP) and to have a meeting with them.
Six of the nine CPLP Member States are African.
This Memorandum of Understanding establishes a practical and flexible framework for collaboration to enhance national capacities, strengthen legislative frameworks, and promote the Convention’s goals across the Portuguese-speaking countries.
Other activities conducted during the reporting period focused on a range of areas including:
- improving controls on cross-border transfers of scheduled chemicals
- developing assistance and protection capabilities for chemical emergencies
- advancing chemical safety and security,
- upgrading laboratory competencies across the continent, and
- fostering programme visibility, stakeholder engagement, and partnerships.
The OPCW Centre for Chemistry and Technology has continued to play an important role in the delivery of our support and assistance.
The Centre’s capabilities were utilised to deliver, among other things, effective training for African analytical chemists, customs officers, and instructors on first response to chemical emergencies.
In the past months, the Secretariat has sponsored the participation of African scientists at several international scientific events.
We also continued to provide and facilitate technical support to African laboratories interested in attaining OPCW designated status.
This month, still June 2025, the Secretariat co-organised jointly with the Government of Tunisia the 23rd meeting of National Authorities of African Member States, in Tunis.
The meeting led to positive outcomes in terms of improving the national implementation of the Convention in Africa. It also advanced the planning for the 7th phase of the Africa Programme.
I wish to sincerely thank the Government of Tunisia for co-organising and hosting this important meeting. The hospitality and the support provided by the Tunisian National Authority and the Permanent Representation here are highly appreciated.
These are just some highlights of the Secretariat’s activities under the Africa Programme since our last meeting.
You will be briefed in more detail by Members of the Secretariat later today.
Excellency,
The activities conducted in the framework of the Africa Programme continue to be funded through the OPCW regular budget with additional voluntary contributions.
During the reporting period, the Secretariat progressed the implementation of the first batch of special projects with extrabudgetary funding under the Africa Programme.
Six out of seven projects were delivered by the end of 2024.
The implementation of the remaining project is scheduled to be finalised shortly.
You will recall that in anticipation of the completion of the first batch of projects, the Secretariat developed and announced a second batch of ten extrabudgetary project proposals.
These new projects, which include the second edition of CHEMEX Africa, are expected to enhance the impact of the Africa Programme.
The Secretariat continued its efforts during the reporting period to mobilise resources for these activities, the implementation of some of them, for which funding has been secured, has been initiated.
I wish to seize this opportunity to reiterate my call to States Parties in a position to do so, to consider supporting the projects that are still open for funding.
As 2025 is the concluding year for the 6th phase of the Africa Programme, the Secretariat launched last March a wide and inclusive consultation process with the African Member States to design the 7th phase.
As part of this process, the Secretariat has conducted a “Needs Assessment Survey” among African Member States to identify areas for further developments in the Programme.
The outcomes of the survey were discussed and validated during the 23rd Regional Meeting of African National Authorities, held in Tunis earlier this month.
Consultations will continue with a view to developing and validating a final concept for the 7th Phase with the African Member States during the Annual Global Meeting of National Authorities in November this year.
As per established practice, the concept will be submitted to the Executive Council at its 111th session in March 2026.
The Secretariat has continued to maintain a constructive dialogue with Programme stakeholders, including governments, donors and partners.
Notably, we have been interacting with the African Union as part of its sustained efforts to revitalise OPCW-African Union cooperation based on concrete activities.
Two meetings were held in December 2024 and in May 2025 in this context between representatives of the Secretariat and the African Union’s Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department.
A number of initiatives are now being considered.
In support of this collaboration, the African Union Commission was invited by the Secretariat to take part remotely in the OPCW Conference on advancing the national implementation of the Convention in Windhoek, where they delivered a presentation.
Excellency,
This tangible progress in the Africa Programme I have described would not have been possible without strong support from all stakeholders.
In particular, I would like to acknowledge the African National Authorities and Permanent Representations, as well as our partners and donors.
Many challenges remain, and we must intensify our collective efforts to safeguard the global norm against chemical weapons.
This is true not least with respect to the adoption of comprehensive national legislation in African States Parties.
In closing, I reiterate the Secretariat’s unwavering commitment to supporting our African Member States on their path to full implementation of the Convention.
I wish you every success in this meeting, and I look forward to our continued collaboration.
Thank you for your attention.