In February 2008, at the SAICM Regional Conference on the implementation of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) for Latin America and Caribbean organized by the SAICM Secretariat administered by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the Regional Coordinating Committee (RCC) for the SAICM implementation in the LAC region was formed, and the Department of Sustainable Development of the Organization of American States (OAS/DSD) was designated by the RCC Members as the LAC RCC’s Regional Agency for the SAICM implementation in the Americas.

In June 2008, the OAS/DSD in collaboration with the SAICM Secretariat, organized the first meeting of the SAICM RCC for LAC at which regional and international experts offered recommendations and identified opportunities for developing an effective SMC in the Americas, and more importantly on the urgency of addressing the goals of SAICM and its mechanisms.

The involvement of the OAS in promoting environmentally-sound chemicals management in Latin America and the Caribbean is a reflection of the growing use of chemicals in all facets of agricultural and industrial production in particular and the development process in general. It is also a reflection of the desire of OAS member states to ensure that the use of these chemicals does not adversely affect human health and the health of the environment. The need for urgent action to address these concerns is emphasized in Declaration of Mar del Plata (Argentina) which was adopted at the Health and Environment Ministers of the Americas (HEMA) at their meeting held in June 2005. Additional mandates have come from OAS’ Summits of the Americas held in Quebec City (Canada) in 2001, and Monterrey (Mexico) in January 2004, at which Member States called for the elaboration and implementation of a cooperative agenda for preventing and reducing environmental health related impacts of obsolete and potentially harmful chemicals

The OAS/DSD’s Sustainable Chemicals Management initiative is being implemented within the framework of the above-mentioned OAS mandates, with the objective of building national and regional cooperation mechanisms and providing the necessary decision-making tools for supporting the region’s compliance with regard to the Stockholm, Rotterdam and Basel Conventions, and related Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), as articulated into the SAICM mechanism.

The Inter-Agency Consultative Meeting

Following up on the outputs of the OAS/DSD’s Chemicals program generated since 2006, including priority actions identified and specific, recommendations from the countries, and the establishment for the collaborative mechanisms for supporting for supporting the Regional Agency for the SAICM LAC implementation, the OAS proposes to convene an Inter-agency Coordination Meeting on December 3, 2008 at OAS Headquarters in Washington D.C.

The meeting aims at:

(a)  Reviewing the status of chemicals management programs and activities within the Hemisphere in the    context of the priorities identified by OAS Member States;

(b)  Identifying gaps that need to be filled;

(c)  Reaching consensus on the proposed preliminary steps towards the implementation of the SAICM framework in the region, as articulated in the Regional Action Plan (RAP).

• Agenda