A series of projects on plastic waste are being undertaken under the Basel and Stockholm Conventions’ Regional Centre Small Grants Programme (SGP) - in short ‘SGP on plastic waste’. Funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), these projects are implemented by Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres and Stockholm Convention regional and subregional centres. The projects aim to improve the management of plastic waste in partner countries and thus contribute towards preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution.
Key facts about the selected projects
- In total, 23 projects have been selected for funding.
- The projects will benefit 40 countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Central and Eastern Europe.
- Budgets range from ca. USD 65,000 to USD 180,000.
- Funding has been provided by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Government of Germany and the Government of Norway.
- An overview of the selected projects is available here.
A series of factsheets has been developed showcasing many of the projects implemented under the SGP on plastic waste. These can be found here. Factsheets on other projects that have been completed are forthcoming shortly.
The SGP on Plastic Waste seeks to identify and implement low-cost high impact pilot projects on the ground, supported by Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres and Stockholm Convention regional and subregional centres. The projects are implemented at the national or regional levels with full engagement of relevant focal points of the Basel Convention or official contact points or national focal points of the Stockholm Convention.
The SGP on Plastic Waste contributes to one or several of the following four results areas:
- Controlling the transboundary movements (TBM) of plastic waste;
- Improving the environmentally sound management (ESM) of plastic waste;
- Preventing and minimizing the generation of plastic waste;
- Reducing the risk from hazardous constituents such as persistent organic pollutants in plastic waste.
The projects should build on results achieved and make use of the tools developed under the technical assistance activities on plastic waste undertaken by the BRS Secretariat, for example the Plastic Waste Inventory Toolkit developed under the BRS-Norad-1 project.
The projects may be implemented in one or several countries that are eligible to receive funding under the technical assistance programme of the Basel and Stockholm Conventions and are listed on the development assistance cooperation list of overseas development assistance (ODA) recipients and can feature activities at municipal, national and regional levels.
Project proposals can be submitted by the Basel Convention Regional and Coordinating Centres or Stockholm Convention Regional Centres. Proposals received from any other stakeholders will not be considered.
Selection process
Three rounds of calls for project proposals have taken place, in mid 2020, late 2020 and mid 2022. A total of 83 eligible proposals were submitted by regional centers during these three rounds. They were screened by the Secretariat and reviewed by the steering committee in accordance with the modalities of the respective rounds of the SGP on Plastic Waste. Taking into account the recommendations of the steering committee, the Secretariat subsequently selected 23 projects to be funded.
For more information, please see the pages of the first and second meeting of the steering committee of the SGP on Plastic Waste.
Documents