MEDIA ADVISORY
COLLOQUIUM ON THE ROLE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS ON MEAs
INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA
What: Parliamentarian Colloquium on Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) - Biodiversity and Chemical/waste Clusters
Theme: “MEAS, a Vehicle for Environmental Sustainability in Africa”

When:
3rd – 5th December 2014 at 9:30am
Where: AUC Headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Who:
Organized by the African Union Commission (AUC), through its Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture in collaboration with the United Nations Environment program (UNEP).

Objectives:
The Colloquium is primarily aimed at creating greater awareness and enhancing capacity of Parliamentarians with agriculture and environmental portfolios. It will also propose a program of work for Green Birds Africa, building on the efforts already undertaken by the Network.

The specific objectives of the colloquium are to increase capacity and awareness of Parliamentarians and participants on:
• Environmental issues, focus on biodiversity and chemicals/waste;
• The role of parliamentarians in mainstreaming the target MEAs in developmental plans and policies;
• The role of Green Bird Africa in environmental sustainability in Africa
• the importance of networking
Expected outputs: The Colloquium will focus on achieving the following results:

a) Increased knowledge and empowerment of Parliamentarians so that they are more proactive supporters of sound environmental management, particularly in biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use, and chemicals and waste management;
b) A more streamlined and coherent program for GBA
c) Enhanced capacity of Parliamentarians with regard to the execution of their roles in ensuring compliance with, and enforcement of environmental laws, policies and conventions at regional and national levels;
d) Improved networking and cooperation between parliamentarians to achieve better cohesion on the continent.

Participants:
The participants will be drawn from regional and national parliaments; the core founding members of GBA; MEAs experts on biodiversity and chemical/waste issues; relevant CSOs and institutions; AU Member States; RECs and Coordinators of the Caribbean and Pacific Hubs of the ACP-MEAs programme, among others.
Background:

The ACP Capacity Building Project on Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) Project was established at the African Union Commission (AUC) in 2009 with objective to build the capacity of African Member States and Regional Economic Communities to implement MEAs. The Project which is funded by the European Union (EU) and facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is focusing on the biodiversity and chemical/waste clusters of conventions, for the next four years. The choice of these clusters is also driven by policy decisions taken by the African Union (AU) Assembly to streamline biodiversity within the priorities of the AU. The choice is also in line with the implementation of the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) Decisions 14/8 on Management of Biodiversity and 14/9 on Engaging Parliamentarians in MEAs, as well as Declarations 19 and 20 which call for the sound management of chemicals and waste in Africa. In this context, the MEAs Project is implementing activities related to capacity enhancement exercises in the fields of; negotiation and implementation; enforcement; mainstreaming; development of tools, guidelines and legislation; promotion of ratification and implementation of conventions; information dissemination and exchange and awareness creation; and training and sensitization for target groups such as Parliamentarians.

Journalists are invited to cover the opening ceremony of the Colloquium for Parliamentarians on Wednesday 03 December 2014, at 9:00am at the AU Headquarters.

The draft programme is attached:

Media contact:

Mr. Molalet Tsedeke, Directorate of Information and Communication, Tel. +251 911 630631, e-mail: Molalett@africa-union.org

For more information please contact:

For further information contact
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: dic@african-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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