The project is part of a Sida-funded program between 2019-2021 that aims to strengthen the Palestinian environmental action program.
During the three years, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency cooperates with the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority (EQA). The focus is on the Basel and Climate Conventions, including Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems. When it comes to climate, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency supports EQA to develop a national plan for how an MRV system could be implemented in Palestine.
In 2019, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency arranged a seminar at which most of the stakeholders gathered and has since had ongoing contact with EQA in the development of the national plan. To complete this, a digital workshop will be organized with those most involved. About hazardous waste, EQA, with the support of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, prepared checklists to better handle transboundary transports of hazardous waste. The next step is to follow up on how these are used.
During 2020 two major products were delivered under the gender component. A mapping of women's representation within the BRS Convention work and related organisation. A pilot study on gender aspects in Household Hazardous chemicals and waste. The chemical study was undertaken under the restriction of Covid-19, which hindered direct meetings with stakeholders and interviewees. These difficult circumstances led to that the experts had to find now solutions for collecting data. All data have been collected using social media, for sending out questionnaire and on-line interviews. A statistically safe sample was established with 380 respondents. This is a great achievement given the difficult circumstances of Covid-19, power cuts in Ramallah and home schooling of children during the period March- August.