About us

The Africa Institute is both a Basel Convention Regional Centre (BCRC) for English speaking African Countries and a Stockholm Convention Regional Centre. It has been established as an intergovernmental organization based in Pretoria, South Africa. It is housed within the Department of Environmental Affairs of the Government of South Africa. This Institute began operating in October 2009 following the closure of its predecessor, the Interim BCRC in 2007. As an intergovernmental organization the Africa Institute is governed by Council which comprises all the countries that have ratifiedⁱ the agreement that establishes it. There are now eight countries that have ratified the Africa Institute agreement. Council has also established a standing committee whose responsibility is day-to-day oversight of the activities of the Institute called the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is made up of five countries, namely South Africa (host), Mauritius (Chair), Namibia, Lesotho and Nigeria. It is elected annually.

The strategic goals of the Institute are
(1) to develop the capacity of the members to manage hazardous wasteⁱ and other wastes,
(2) to develop capacity of members to participate and influence international negotiations related to hazardous waste and chemicals,
(3) to enhance implementation of the hazardous waste and chemicals conventions,
(4) to enhance regional research and monitoring of chemicals and hazardous waste,
(5) to facilitate access to and transfer of technologies for sound management of hazardous waste and
(6) to disseminate information on environmentally sound management of hazardous waste and chemicals.
 

These strategic goals will be achieved through training programmes, projects and development of collaborative linkages between institutions. The Africa Institute will serve as a platform that will build capacity of its members to face and arrest the challenges of hazardous waste and other wastes and chemicals. To do so it needs to build networks within the region and beyond. It needs to encourage sharing of experiences, expertise and resources.

Two workshops were held in Pretoria, which are “The Regional Awareness Raising Workshop on Enhancing Cooperation and Coordination among the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions in the English speaking African Countries”, held from 28-30 October 2009, and “The Training Workshop for the Rotterdam Conventionⁱ Designated National Authorities” held from 2-6 November 2009. The two workshops  provided the Institute with a picture of the challenges that member countries face. In summary these challenges are
(1) fragmented, ineffective and sectoral legislations
(2) unknown stockpiles of hazardous chemicals,
(3) lack of disposal facilities for chemicals and hazardous waste,
(4) e-wasteⁱ,
(5) lack of analytical capacity,
(6) lack of expertise, and
(7) non-implementation of the globally harmonized system of classification and labeling of chemicals within the region and awareness towards it.

To address these challenges the region must develop its human resource in order to have the requisite skills and build its technical capacity.

 The IGOⁱ is hosted by the Department of Environment in Pretoria, South Africa (host agreement).