SAICM Stories

This policy brief aims to explore the barriers Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) face to transition to paint with no added lead while highlighting the importance of multistakeholder collaboration.

This policy brief explores the issue of plastics and chemical additives in products as well as microplastics pollution.

55 policies from 36 countries enter the race for the “Oscar on best policies”: The Future Policy Award (FPA) 2021 is looking for the world’s best policies that protect people and the environment from hazardous chemicals.

This policy brief highlights examples of governments around the world using legal measures and tools to balance the many benefits of chemicals production and use with some of their socio-economic, human health and environmental costs.

Global policy frameworks like SAICM are among the key tools to protect biodiversity from the harmful impacts of pollution arising from unsound management of chemicals and waste

This policy brief provides some key lessons learned since 2006 that SAICM’s stakeholders may consider in moving forward beyond 2020

SAICM invites you to visit the just-launched website www.chemicalswithoutconcern.org. This is a place to learn about emerging policy issues and their linkages with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

With the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continuing to spread and its impacts upon human health and the economy intensifying day-by-day, governments are urged to treat waste management, including of medical, household and other hazardous waste, as an urgent and essential public service in order to minimise possible secondary impacts upon health and the environment.

Reporting on SAICM implementation is a key tool in assessing progress towards the achievement of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation's goal of sound management of chemicals by 2020. Stakeholders across all sectors are encouraged to complete the survey so that their activities are reflected in the report. The deadline to complete the survey is 30 April 2020.

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Check out our new videos on EPI, EPPs, HHPs, and PFCs

QSP put in motion a project implemented by the Jordanian Royal Scientific Society and UNEP from 2016 to 2018 to help address the issue of the elimination of lead in paints – an emerging policy issue for the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management.

The fourth round of applications was launched on 29 November 2019. The deadline for submissions was extended to 4 September 2020. It is now closed.

The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a catalyst, connecting sectors and stakeholders, towards the goal of a chemical-safe, clean and healthy future by 2020.

“Research on the growing impact of emerging issues on human health and the environment is crucial for building effective development plans. Likewise, assessments of risks and monitoring of environmental trends can play a decisive role. Making that research available to a wider audience allows us to act sooner on the most urgent issues, and in doing so to bridge science to policy and policy to science.”

As one of the most ambitious international chemicals management programmes undertaken draws to a close in December 2019 after 13 successful years – here is what you should know about it.

Costa Rica is home to more animal species per hectare than any other place on Earth. Yet until relatively recently, Costa Rica has remained one of the countries with the highest intensities of pesticide use in the world with many of the pesticides being highly hazardous in terms of acute toxicity, chronic health risk and/or environmental contamination. The SAICM-funded QSP project on ‘Highly Hazardous Pesticides phase out and alternatives in Costa Rica’ has been an important player in recent years improvement of the situation.

Sri Lanka’s economy has been shaped in recent years by the industrial sectors of rubber, tourism, and textiles and apparels. Though these industries provide financial benefits to the economy, they are not always managed with environmental sustainability in mind. Therefore, the potential to cause damage to human health and the environment exists. To address the issue, the Quick Start Programme (QSP) funded a project in Sri Lanka to strengthen national capacity for applying ‘SMART Chemicals Management’.

On this International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, themed “32 years and healing,” we can rightfully celebrate over three decades of remarkable international cooperation to protect the ozone layer. Ozone layer protection efforts have not just helped drive ozone healing but have also contributed to the fight against climate change by averting an estimated 135 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. This shows that solutions can be advantageous on multiple fronts without watering down the benefits.

Celebrating successful women-led health and chemicals projects in Balkan communities.

The third meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group for the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management was held from 2-4 April 2019 in Montevideo, Uruguay. The meeting allowed for multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral deliberation on the sound management of chemicals and waste up to and beyond 2020. It also provided an effective platform to showcase key initiatives.

The Global Chemicals Outlook II – From Legacies to Innovative Solutions: Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, mandated by the UN Environment Assembly in 2016, seeks to alert policymakers and other stakeholders to the critical role of the sound management of chemicals and waste in sustainable development. It takes stock of global trends as well as progress made and gaps in achieving the global goal to minimize the adverse impacts from chemicals and waste by 2020. The Global Chemicals Outlook II finds that the global goal to minimize adverse impacts of chemicals and waste will not be achieved by 2020. Solutions exist, but more ambitious worldwide action by all stakeholders is urgently required.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) together with the Uruguayan Government signed a Host Country Agreement during the last week of November 2018, to set the arrangements for the Third meeting of the Open-ended Working Group. The event will take place in Montevideo on 2-4 April 2019, and will discuss the management of chemical substances and products leading to the fifth International Conference of Chemicals Management (ICCM5) in 2020.

The ceremony was chaired by three Ministers of the Uruguayan Government, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Housing, Land Planning and Environment and Jacob Duer, Chief of the Chemicals and Health Branch from UN Environment.

Regional SAICM meetings will be held back-to-back with the regional meetings organized in preparation of the Minamata Convention second Conference of the Parties (COP2). SAICM workshops will be half-day meetings with the other half-day being workshops organized by the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. Please find the information dates and places here.

Tuesday, July 17, United Nations Plaza, New York - The purpose of this event was to provide a platform for participants to discuss and exchange views and perspectives on chemicals and waste in the context of SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production patterns, thus ensuring healthy lives and a healthy planet well into the future. More information can be found here. The event was also covered by IISD and the report can be found here.

Chemicals management through the development of Electronic distance learning tool (eDLT)

From the 23rd of February 2018, the Special Programme on Institutional Strengthening is open for applications for 4 months. The deadline for submission of applications is Thursday the 21st of June 2018.

The draft independent evaluation of the Strategic Approach for 2006-2015 is now available. This report, mandated by the ICCM resolution IV/4, aims to provide an analysis to inform intersessional process, enabling ICCM5 to make an informed decision on the future arrangement for the Strategic Approach and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020.

In Lesotho, one project funded by the Quick Start Programme Trust Fund, entitled ‘Strengthening the capacity of smallholder farmers, extension staff and agro-dealers on judicious use of herbicides’, helped to increase the knowledge of the safe use of herbicides and other pesticides among these key groups to improve crop outcomes, protect the health of communities and prevent damage to the environment.

The second meeting of the intersessional process will be held in Stockholm, Sweden, from 13 to 15 March 2018, hosted by the Government of Sweden.

We are building a new information platform for SAICM. The survey is now closed ! Thank you for your help.

In May of 2017, the Global Environment Facility approved the concept note for the project ‘Global best practices on emerging chemical policy issues of concern under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)’, a $9 million full-size project that is scheduled to begin in 2018 until 2020. The project will focus on the SAICM emerging policy issues (EPIs). These EPIs represent particular environmental and health problems and SAICM aims to forge cooperative action to address these issues. The project will focus on: phase out of lead in paint; lifecycle management in chemicals in products; and knowledge management strategies.

On May 30, 2017, the Seventieth World Health Assembly approved the Road map to enhance health sector engagement in the strategic approach to international chemicals management towards the 2020 goal and beyond.  The road map identifies concrete actions where the health sector has either a lead or important supporting role to play in the sound management of chemicals, recognizing the need for multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder cooperation.

All SAICM stakeholders are invited to submit their input and suggestions to the Intersessional Process considering the Strategic Approach and the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste Beyond 2020.

The Strategic Approach secretariat and the Government of Germany are organising a side event at the Conference of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions on Tuesday 25 April, 6.15 p.m. to 7.45 p.m. / Room 15. The side event will be interactive and provide a platform for participants to discuss and exchange views and perspectives.

Thanks to the funding received from the Quick Start Programme Trust Fund, the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Africa implemented a number of activities with communities in Mali and Senegal to raise awareness and build capacity of civil society organizations and local communities to reduce risks related to pesticides use in agricultural and health sector, and to monitor and gather data on pesticide use and incidents of exposure to chemicals.

22th February 2017, the second round of applications is now open for 4 months. The deadline for all applications to be submitted to the Special Programme secretariat is Tuesday 20th June 2017 at midnight.

“We are aware of the benefits of the current time we live in. Today we can choose a similar toy from various producers, however, we do not usually take into consideration on the chemical composition and its possible harmful effects. This campaign reminded me to think twice before I buy a new toy for my child, and to choose smartly”, said one mother during the “The fight to know!” campaign".

Cátedra del Olmo set up a women's association, Hacia el Futuro (Towards the future) in the town of la Pascuala, Samaná region, Dominican Republic in 2008. The group started a cooperative to produce cleaning products, cooking them up on a small wood stove to begin with, and marketing them to local businesses including hotels, offices and hospitals. The income gave the women, most of them single parents, enough to feed their families.

A process to prepare recommendations regarding the Strategic Approach and sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 will be launched in Brasilia, Brazil, from 7 to 9 February 2017. Approximately 300 participants representing governments, industry, United Nations agencies and civil society are expected to participate.

When industrial disasters make the headlines, we often sit up and take notice. Could it happen near me? Whether it strikes a gas and petroleum company, a chemicals warehouse or a fertilizer plant, first thoughts go to victims and communities’ understandable anger. When the dust settles, ensuing debate can result in positive change and sometimes increased understanding of the risks, and the costs of inaction to manage chemicals better.

Chemicals are everywhere, more than 100,000 of them. Their long scientific names and complex formulas make the simplest things possible: food, toys, clothes, our phones and more. Chemicals have the power to build economies, sustain societies, cure the sick, entertain, feed and clothe us. The ways in which we use chemicals can make the difference between environmental degradation and rich resources, between health and illness

The Global Waste Management Outlook, a collective effort of the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Waste Management Association, is a pioneering scientific global assessment on the state of waste management and a call for action to the international community. The document establishes the rationale and the tools for taking a holistic approach towards waste management and recognizing waste and resource management as a significant contributor to sustainable development and climate change mitigation.

A call for attention and action on environmentally persistent pharmaceutical pollutants presented at the 4th International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM4) in September 2015. Stakeholders of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) consider a proposal to include environmentally persistent pharmaceutical pollutants as an emerging policy issue at ICCM4

Regulatory requirements, customer demands, media attention, non-governmental organization advocacy, product recalls, and market opportunities are driving companies to know more about the chemicals in their products and supply chains. This has led to an increasing demand for higher transparency. The use of Chemicals in Products information systems clearly demonstrate the value of knowing about chemicals that products contain.

UN environment has developed a guidance document Legal and Institutional infrastructures for the Sound Management of Chemicals and measures for costs Recovery of national Administration. Known as LIRA guidance, it aims to provide practical support to countries when developing or strengthening national legislation and institutional structures for achieving sound management of chemicals, including measures for financing the costs associated with the national administration.