The UNDP-GEF POPs Resource Kit - International POPs Elimination ...

national level, providing an opportunity for women’s and minority groups to more effectively
influence their life environment.
POPs, Governance and Macroeconomics
Activities to address POPs issues can also contribute to strengthening governance
structures and processes in programme countries. The Convention puts high emphasis on
cross-societal governance and information structures enabling all stakeholders to be informed
and participate in the POPs reduction and phase-out processes. The POPs enabling activities
planned will serve to establish or improve the structures for regulating chemicals, an
increasingly important and complex health and environmental problem area. Establishment
and/or strengthening of such systematic structures can play a key role in facilitating tackling
of other national priorities such as municipal waste management. The cost-benefit
approaches advocated for POPs reduction and phase-out will further nourish a governance
culture where decision-makers are increasingly making the best use of limited resources.
At a macroeconomic level the consequences of POPs exposure may also be
significant. For instance, the demands placed on already stretched resources for basic
services, like health care, are further increased. POPs can impact both the quality and
quantity of agricultural output and in some cases entire sectors of industries, like fisheries,
can be irreversibly affected.
POPs and the Environment
The environmental benefits of the phase-out and elimination of POPs are also clear.
Ample evidence exist on the devastating toll of persistent contaminants on wildlife. In many
parts of the world, POPs have been shown to disrupt sexual development and to diminish
reproductive abilities of exposed species. Some sensitive species have disappeared
altogether because of total reproductive failure linked to chemicals on the POPs list. The
linkage between reducing POPs and preserving biodiversity is strong both at individual
species as well as at ecosystem levels. Linkages relating to Energy and Environment are also
prominent particularly in the context of the POPs dioxins and furans, un-intentional byproducts
from combustion and energy intensive industry. Integrated approaches to urban
development issues such as cleaner industial production and minimization of municipal,
hospital and other waste must be elements of any successful strategy to reducing and
ultimately eliminating POPs.
UNDP and POPs
The discussion above demonstrates clearly that concerted global action on POPs will
provide significant benefits to the key constituencies and customers of UNDP, the poor in the
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