Frequently asked questions
1. What are the ACP Countries?
ACP is an acronym which stands for African, Caribbean and Pacific. The ACP countries are a group of 78 countries which benefit from special development cooperation status with the European Union. TO find out if your country is an ACP country please visit the website of the ACP Secretariat.

2. What is an MEA?
An MEA is a multilateral environmental agreement: an environment-related treaty or other agreement between three or more countries. There are hundreds of MEAs. The main ones you will already have heard of include the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desrtification (UNCCD), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flaura (CITES), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) , Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade and the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

3. What is the European Commission and the United Nations Environment Programme doing to support MEAs in ACP countries?
The European Commission and UNEP. along with other partners, have designed a four-year 21 million euro project to to assist African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to implement multilateral environmental agreements. The project began on 1 March 2009 and will close on 28 February 2013.

4. Who are the European Commission and UNEP partnering with?
UNEP is coordinating and facilitating the work of seven partner institutions. These are the African Union Commission, the Caribbean Community Secretariat, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, the UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy Climate and Sustainable Development, the SAICM Secretariat, the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

5. What activities will undertaken to assist ACP countries implement MEAs?
The type of activity varies between the Programme’s two components:

1: Regional Hubs
The Regional Hubs’ activities will generally focus on strengthening and enhancing the capacities of national governments and stakeholders, as well as regional and sub-regional organizations, related institutions and stakeholders. Activities will include negotiation and lobbying skills training; project design and management training; detailed needs identification; harmonizing and streamlining of national reporting to MEAs; improved information management and utilization; and development, testing and dissemination of normative tools.

2: Support to Specific MEAs
Activities will focus on building capacity to access Clean Development Mechanism funds, promote the sound management of chemicals, develop integrated financing strategies for sustainable land management and promote the management of obsolete pesticides. Activities will be practical, hands-on and participatory and include training in resource mobilization, capacity-building, knowledge management, information and experience sharing, and development and/or updating of national profiles.

6. Will my country benefit these activities?
Priority countries and activities will be chosen during the first six months of the project. Existing needs as identified in National Capacity Self Assessments, Common Country Assessments, State of the Environment reports, decision of MEA Conference of the Parties and Meetings of the Parties will be analyzed, synthesized and prioritized. Countries will have an opportunity to review the identified priorities and endorse their selection.

7. What is UNEP’s role?
UNEP is the overall coordinator and facilitator. It provides guidance to its partners and ensures that the donor (European Union) and beneficiary (ACP Secretariat) requirements are complied with. It assists the partners in planning and implementing activities and will identify potential synergies to build on complementarities and avoid overlap.

8.Who reviews progress and implementation?
The Programme Steering Committee (PSC) is responsible for overall guidance and technical orientation and coherence. It will discuss, amend and approve the programmed activities. The PSC comprises of the ACP Secretariat, UNEP and the European Commission. AUC, the CARICOM Secretariat, SPREP, UNEP Risoe Centre, UNCCD GM, the SAICM Secretariat and FAO will be observers. Specific resource persons from MEA Secretariats, for example, could also be invited to the PSC as and when needed.