Technical assistance

The Secretariat provides training on the preparation of proposals for a Severely Hazardous Pesticide Formulation and it facilitates the gathering of all involved stakeholders to develop a national system for pesticide incident data collection, monitoring and reporting under article 6.

The Secretariat offers assistance to Parties who are developing countries or countries with economies in transition to reporting on pesticide incidents. The peculiarity of the technical assistance programme for SHPFs is to bring together several national stakeholders such as ministries of Health, Agriculture and Environment, NGOs, farmers, academia and others to define key objectives, financial resources, target groups, and other aspects of an incident reporting system.

The programme of assistance implies an initial identification of the national capacity for collecting data in the field on pesticide poisonings. A following step establishes a national monitoring system at rural community and health centers level in order to collect data and report on pesticide incidents to the Secretariat through the procedure set out by article 6 and Annex IV to the text of the Convention.

In this framework, an SHPF kit has been developed to provide guidance on monitoring and reporting pesticide poisoning incidents, the kit builds on the direct experience of experts from around the world. Tools such as a template for concept notes, work plans and budgets to prepare a national monitoring programmes are made available as well as field tools and links to other resources. Such information is of great value at the national level and also has the potential to contribute to improved chemicals management globally. 

Information on the technical assistance activities delivered by the Secretariat in the different regions and countries can be accessed here.

To request assistance for such activities, please contact the Secretariat of the Rotterdam Convention at pic@fao.org or sarra.baccouri@fao.org indicating interest and providing information on desired activities and objectives.