Out of the 20 applications received, 10 projects from Nigeria and nine other nations have been approved by the Governing Board of the Specific International Programme of the Minamata Convention on Mercury in the Second Round of the programme.
Sam Adu-Kumi (Ghana) and Reggie Hernaus (The Netherlands), Co-Chairs of the Governing Board of the Specific International Programme, who made the disclosure, submitted that the Board approved the 10 projects on Friday, September 20, 2019.
The 10 projects amount to close to $2 million.
The Nigerian project entails capacity strengthening for the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury in the country.
Apart from Nigeria, the successful projects were submitted by Antigua and Barbuda, Ecuador, Ghana, Indonesia, Iran, Moldova, Peru, Sri Lanka and Zambia.
Adu-Kumi and Hernaus said: “On behalf of the Board, we would like to congratulate these applicants noting that each project successfully sets out to support capacity-building and technical assistance in support of the implementation of their obligations under the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
“As with the First Round in 2018, the Board noted again in 2019 the high interest expressed by Parties in the Specific International Programme. Twenty applications were made to the Second Round with applications received from all regions, including from least developed countries and from small island developing states.
“The Board would like to commend all the applicants, whether successful or not in the Second Round, for having prepared and submitted their applications.
“Recognising the country needs expressed and the effort invested in the preparation of the applications, for applications that were not approved in this Second Round, the Board proposed a number of recommendations for the applicant to consider for submission to the Third Round. These recommendations will be sent by the Secretariat on behalf of the Board in due course.
“The Board would like to sincerely thank Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States for their strong contributions to the Second Round of the Specific International Programme. The resource envelope available for the Second Round represented a doubling of funding, which allowed the Board to approve twice the number of projects in 2019 compared with 2018.
“Given the high interest shown in the Programme and the country needs expressed, we hope to be in a position to launch the Third Round soon and in this regard would like to encourage those in a position to do so to contribute to a robust next round of the Programme.
“The Board will present its full report to the Conference of the Parties at its third meeting in November 2019. On behalf of the Board we would also like to thank the Secretariat of the Global Environment Facility for hosting the meeting at its premises in Washington D.C.”
The Minamata Convention on Mercury, under Article 13, set up the Specific International Programme to support capacity building and technical assistance. The Programme is expected to improve the capacity of developing-country Parties and Parties with economies in transition to implement their obligations under the Convention.
The Second Round of applications to the Specific International Programme was open for submissions between March 5 and June 14, 2019. Eligible Parties were invited to submit their applications for project funding between $50,000 and $250,000.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international environmental convention for global community to work collaboratively against mercury pollution. It aims at achieving environmentally sound mercury management throughout its life cycle.
The Convention was adopted at the diplomatic conferences held in Minamata City and Kumamoto City in Japan in October 2013.
Nigeria deposited its instrument of ratification on Thursday, February 1, 2018 to become the 88th Party to the Convention.
