UNITAR has issued the 2012 Guidance Document for “Preparing a National Profile to Assess Infrastructure and Capacity Needs for Chemicals Management”. This guidance document, initially issued in 1996 and now revised as a second edition, has been developed to assist countries in preparing National Profiles through a process which involves all interested parties at the country level.

A National Profile:

  • can become an official national reference document, providing a clear picture of the national legal, institutional, administrative, and technical infrastructure for national chemicals management;
  • may assist in the identification of infrastructure-related strengths, weaknesses, and gaps, as well as priority needs for national action and external technical assistance; and
  • could provide a nationally-recognised information base against which progress may be judged in meeting specific national or international targets.

This guidance document is intended to assist countries that still need to prepare National Profiles and those that will update or revise their National Profiles for specific purposes and to respond to emerging issues, ensuring that there is a sound information base available in the country for decision making in relation to chemicals management. To remain valuable, the National Profile should be reviewed periodically to determine when updating is needed. Updating the National Profile could be undertaken in a comprehensive manner (i.e. the entire National Profile), or by updating specific chapters only, e.g. as a result of particular national or international developments. The use for which the National Profile is intended will determine how often updating is warranted; for most purposes updating every few years would be appropriate.

Since 1996, over 120 countries have used this guidance to prepare National Profiles, assess existing infrastructure, and begin to set national priorities towards strengthening sound chemicals management.

This second edition takes into account developments that have taken place since 1996 and lessons learned in countries as they have developed National Profiles; more comprehensively covers the entire life cycle of chemicals management; and integrates the most effective parts of the 2007 IOMC National SAICM Capacity Assessment methodology into this revised National Profile guidance.

It has been prepared by UNITAR under the umbrella of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC), a cooperative agreement of FAO, ILO, UNDP, UNEP, UNIDO, UNITAR, WHO, OECD, and the World Bank.

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