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other africa-related work outside the mfa work
programme
Emerging Environmental Issues
The Africa Programme continues to explore the landscape
for emerging and persistent environmental issues that re-
quire awareness raising. Three potential topics are under
consideration - the influence of environmental resources
on the development of Africa’s infrastructure, environ-
mental impacts of electronic waste in Africa, and possible
impacts of the development of the oil and gas industry in
East Africa’s Indian Ocean.
A project proposal on the role of environmental resources
in the development of Africa’s infrastructure was submit-
ted to the African Development Bank following the short-
listing of GRID-Arendal to bid for the project along with
five other organizations. A decision on the proposal is still
pending. Funding from other sources will also be explored.
The extent of electronic waste in Africa is not well docu-
mented although there is growing interest by the private
sector to find better ways of collecting and reusing the
waste. GRID-Arendal will conduct a study on electronic
waste in 2014, while also prospecting for large-scale project
development under the Environmental Crime portfolio.
Following a request by coastal countries in East Africa,
GRID-Arendal and the Nairobi Convention Secretariat
have prepared a project proposal on the potential impacts
of the development of the oil and gas industry off the In-
dian Ocean coast in East Africa. Funding options will be
explored during the course of 2014.
FK Exchange
The 2011/12 round of the FK exchange was successfully
concluded. While all the six participants benefited from
a skills exchange during their posting abroad, it is also
worth noting that all were able to undertake very inspiring
personal projects in areas such as landslides in Uganda,91
environmental outreach activities targeting schools in and
around Arendal, and development of e-learning products.
9.2 EURASIA
 Chemical safety in ODA countries of
EECCA region
Two projects, linked to the UNEP Chemicals Branch,
were carried out under a partnership agreement with the
International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN). GRID-
Arendal coordinated the communication and information
91.
components of the project, while IPEN provided technical
and scientific support.
The project on ‘Toxic Metals in Children’s Products’92 ana-
lysed 569 different children’s products, mainly toys, avail-
able on the market in 2012 in 6 countries of the EECCA
region (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
and Ukraine).93 Measurements focused on 6 heavy met-
als - lead, mercury, arsenic, antimony, cadmium and chro-
mium. Approximately 27% of the products were found to
contain at least one toxic metal and 13% contained two
or more toxic metals, increasing their potential for harm.
Samples of toys, contaminated with heavy metals (lead, arsenic,
cadmium)
A media campaign was designed to attract public attention
and initiate discussions with concerned audiences. Two
sets of outreach activities were organised. The first took
place in Moscow from 11-14 December 2012 and involved
a press conference at the Journalists Union, a public/live
testing on BBC News, and round tables in Moscow Duma,
the Mendeleev Institute of the Russian Academy of Sci-
ences and the State Duma. More than 300 media sources
published the findings in the 6 project countries. Since
then various secondary publications have cited the pro-
ject results (for example, the Widerøe in-flight magazine
in the fall of 2013). In Russia an important outcome was
the circulation of the results through the country’s largest
consumer organization – the Consumers’ Union of Rus-
sia. The second event was a regional conference in Yere-
van, Armenia on 17 December 2012 when representatives
from all project stakeholders discussed appropriate policy
measures and made recommendations to governments.
92. The project had a total budget of USD160,000 and was jointly
(50/50) funded with IPEN.
93. The study was carried out under the auspices of the IPEN,
EcoAccord (Russia), the Armenian Women for Health and Healthy
Environment, MAM-86 (Ukraine), the Centre for Environmental
Solutions (Belarus), Independent Environmental Expertise
(Kyrgyzstan), Greenwomen (Kazakhstan), and GRID-Arendal.