Those responsible for implementing IMO conventions on pollution preparedness and response, and for transposing them into domestic legislation, are attending a sub-regional workshop aimed at sharing best practices relating to the instruments' application in West Africa.
The event in Lomé, Togo (10-13 October) is targeted at policymakers and those who advise on and who draft national laws in Benin, Guinea, Mauritania and Togo. The objective is to raise awareness of how IMO develops international rules that, to be effectively implemented, must be reflected by Member States in their national legislation, and to support them in doing so.
The workshop provides an opportunity for participants to, through presentations and lectures, share their experience relating to the legal and technical aspects of articles that make up IMO Conventions on oil pollution, liability and compensation, i.e., OPRC 1990, CLC and FUND 1992, as well as the Bunkers Convention.
The meeting is being delivered through IMO's Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme (ITCP) under the framework of the Global Initiative for West, Central and Southern Africa (GI WACAF). It forms part of the Organization's commitment to supporting African Small Island Developing States (SIDs) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
Similar workshops were held remotely in 2021 for the benefit of the Gambia, Liberia, Namibia and Nigeria - and in 2022, under the GI SEA Project, for Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.
