IPEN Group Joins AMCEN Meeting in Senegal

A delegation of IPEN members are joining the resumed eighteenth session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Dakar, Senegal this week, under the theme: “Ensuring the well-being of populations and ensuring environmental sustainability in Africa".

The AMCEN session will provide an opportunity for delegates to be briefed on the outcomes of the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2), the status of implementation of the resolutions adopted at this session, including the development of an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, with a focus on organizing Africa's participation in the intergovernmental negotiating committee as well as on issues keys for the continent on plastic pollution.

The IPEN group organized a side event at the session on “Health, Chemicals, Plastics, and a Non-Toxic Circular Economy.” Delegates learned about the key issues to be addressed by the Plastics Treaty, including how chemicals in plastics can impact human health, with a focus on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and the circular economy challenges regarding hazardous chemicals in plastics throughout their life-cycle.

IPEN Plastics Working Group Co-chair and executive director of the Center for Environmental Justice and Development Griffins Ochieng told Voice of America (VOA) News that the AMCEN meeting needed to address the root causes of the plastics crisis, noting that "We have to ensure that Africa calls out the major causes: the producers who cause the problem of plastic to take action in curbing plastic production, removing harmful substances in the production and looking at the redesign of the product."

Check back to this page for more updates on the AMCEN meeting. Also, see IPEN's video on Plastics, Plastic Waste, and Chemicals in Africa.