First Meeting of the Programme Steering Committee (PSC) for Capacity Building: 26 November 2009
The First Meeting of the Programme Steering Committee (PSC) for Capacity Building related to Implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements in the African, Caribbean and Pacific(ACP) Countries will take place on Thursday 26 November 2009 at the ACP Secretariat in Brussels, Belgium. This one day meeting will be convened to review the inception reports containing detailed costed workplans for the execution of the four year programme activities prepared by the respective Programme implementing Executing Agencies, namely, the African Union Commission for the Africa region, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat for the Caribbean region, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) for the Pacific region, the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD for the desertification activities, FAO for obsolete pesticides, UNEP Chemicals/SAICM Secretariat for the sound chemical management and the UNEP Risoe Centre for the clean development mechanism under the climate change convention. These Agencies will attend the PSC as observers while the ACP Secretariat, UNEP and the European Commission will do so as members.
The PSC will be preceded by a one day meeting of the Executing Agencies to be held on Wednesday 25 November 2009 also at the ACP Secretariat which will be an avenue for the partners to exchange views, experiences and lessons learned among themselves and with UNEP as the overall coordinator and facilitator of the programme during the Inception Phase period.

African Hub prepares to host second African Needs Workshop: 14-16 September 2009
The AUC will host the second African Needs workshop in Addis Ababa on 14-16 September 2009. The workshop will bring together Central and Southern African countries and African island states to discuss, review and endorse their priority capacity building needs. UNEP will support the AUC during this workshop. The African Hub will use input from the workshop to develop the African Hub work plan.

Caribbean Hub prepares to host Caribbean Needs Workshop: 8-10 September 2009
The CARICOM Secretariat will host the Caribbean Needs Workshop in Georgetown on 8-10 September 2009. The workshop will bring together Caribbean ACP countries to discuss, review and endorse their priority capacity building needs. The Caribbean Hub will use input from the workshop to develop the African Hub work plan.

African Hub holds first African Needs Workshop: 7-9 July 2009
The AUC and UNEP co-hosted the first African needs workshop in Nairobi on 7-9 July 2009. The workshop brought together countries from Eastern and Western Africa to discuss, review and endorse the priority capacity building needs for those sub-regions. Identified needs included national coordination, strengthened national planning, mainstreaming environment and MEAs into national development plans and policies and improved compliance with and enforcement of MEAs The African Hub will use input from the workshop to develop the African Hub work plan.