NIPs are the primary tool for a Party to prepare for compliance under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Under Article 7 of the Convention, a NIP should: be tailored to the needs of the Party, use existing national structures, integrate national sustainable development strategies, and retain flexibility to respond to the listing of new chemicals. There is a five-step process for developing a POPs NIP:
- 1. Determining coordinating mechanisms and organisations;
- 2. Establishing a POPs inventory and assessing national infrastructure and capacity;
- 3. Setting priorities and determining objectives;
- 4. Formulating a prioritized and costed NIP and Specific Action Plans on POPs; and
- 5. Endorsement of the NIP by stakeholders.
When a State prepares its national profile, it assesses its infrastructure capacity and institutions to manage POPs, including regulatory controls; needs; and options for strengthening them. The State also assesses its enforcement capacity to ensure compliance. Based on the inventory, infrastructure, capacity, priorities, and objectives identified, the NIP can include a variety of possible activities to implement the Convention, including: drafting of new legislation and/or regulations; strengthening of compliance and enforcement of existing regulations; and capacity building activities.
UNEP, supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is executing a pilot project in 12 States aimed at developing and implementing NIPs. In some instances, these pilot projects are facilitating the development of the necessary implementing measures to enable States to ratify the Stockholm Convention. In addition, UNEP is supporting a further 42 States in developing their NIPs, and in total 120 NIPs are being supported by the GEF through projects executed by UNEP and other GEF implementing and executing agencies (including UNDP and UNIDO).
For more information, see http://www.pops.int or contact ssc@chemicals.unep.ch