GMP2 GRULAC Inception Workshop

The Inception Workshop on the GEF-funded Project Continuing Regional Support for the POPs GMP under the Stockholm Convention in the Latin American and Caribbean Region (GRULAC) and the Training Workshop on the Tools and Methods to Include the Nine New POPs into the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) were held on 1-4 December 2015, Montevideo, Uruguay. The objective of this joint workshop is to present the results and outputs (e.g. guidance documents) of the New POPs project into the GMP (1 December 2015) and to officially launch the GMP2 GRULAC the GEF GMP project in the LAC region project (1-4 December 2015) by defining roles and responsibilities of each partner, by discussing technical aspects of the project, and by agreeing on the programme and activities to be carried out in the project.

The workshops mainly delivered the following outputs:

• Good understanding of the context of the project, including the effectiveness evaluation of the Stockholm Convention and the outcomes of the GMP1 regional project in GRULAC
• Clarification of the roles and responsibilities of the participating countries and institutions
• Increased familiarity with the set-up, workplan, timeline, budget and activities of the GMP 2 project, including air sampling and analysis, human milk sampling and laboratory training
• Discussion and finalization of the drafted legal agreements between UNEP and the participating countries.