IPEN, the International Pollutants Elimination Network, Two Decades of Reducing and Eliminating the Most Harmful Chemicals
(Gothenburg, Sweden) IPEN, the global environmental health network with over 550 public interest organizations in 122 countries, is changing its name as it kicks off the next twenty years of science, policy and advocacy work to forge a toxics-free future for all. IPEN now stands for International Pollutants Elimination Network.
IPEN’s regional meeting for the South Asia Region was conducted from 17-19 April, 2019 in New Delhi, India. The three-day meeting with regional participating organizations (POs) was organized by Toxics Link, IPEN’s hub for South Asia Region. A total of 26 POs from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka participated in the event.
This was the first of its kind meeting and was very crucial in bringing the POs together to have a better understanding of each other’s work.
IPEN Regional Hub Eco-Accord, in cooperation with the Independent Ecological Expertise, an IPEN Participating Organization in Kyrgyzstan, successfully organized and hosted the EECCA regional workshop in Kyrgyzstan from August 26-29. The meeting was held in one of the most beautiful places, Lake Issyk-Kul, located in the Tian Shan Mountains. It is the second largest saline lake in the world, warm enough to swim in.
The team of 24 NGO representatives from countries in the EECCA region worked hard to strengthen and adopt a revised Regional NGO Strategy for the current period until 2030, with its intermediate assessment in 2020.
The programme of the meeting was quite comprehensive, but the team allocated enough time for a fruitful discussion, communicating many different perspectives and expertise on a range of topics.