12 December 2012, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – Côte d’Ivoire held its National Planning and Inception Meeting for the project “Implications of ratification of the Basel Convention Ban Amendment for Côte d'Ivoire”, on 12 December 2012, with the participation of UNITAR. The objectives of the workshop were to raise awareness about the Basel Convention and the Basel Convention Ban Amendment  and to launch and plan the activities of the national project.  The project aims to develop a situation and gap analysis related to import of hazardous wastes as related to the Ban amendment and implications of ratification of the amendment, a legal analysis of steps needed to ratify the Ban amendment in Côte d'Ivoire, and a draft legal text related to how Côte d'Ivoire could ratify the Ban amendment.

The meeting represented an opportunity for some 19 participants, mainly from the public and private sectors, to discuss about project activity implementation and specific roles and responsibilities to be played by the different stakeholders.

The National Planning and Inception Meeting was followed by four additional meetings between the Project Coordinating Team and the Ministries of Agriculture, Transport, Public Health, and Commerce, to further discuss details about roles and responsibilities regarding the project implementation.

The National Planning and Inception Meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Côte d’Ivoire, with technical support provided by UNITAR, and financial support provided by the Swiss Government.