OPCW’s 12th Annual Associate Programme Gets Underway

The Programme opened today with a ceremony to welcome participants at the Technical Secretariat in The Hague. The 9-week curriculum [PDF] is designed to enhance States Parties’ national capacities to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by training personnel from industry, universities and government agencies, and to facilitate trade through the adoption of best practices in the chemical industry.

The Associate Programme helps to broaden the pool of future recruits for CWC National Authorities and other national institutions, for the economies of States Parties, and for the Technical Secretariat.  It also contributes to the Technical Secretariat’s Programme to Strengthen Cooperation with Africa, with 11 of the 28 Associates this year coming from African countries.*

This year will feature, for the first time, a dedicated interactive blog where the Associates will be able to share their ideas about the Programme as it unfolds and comprehensively document their experiences.

To complement the in-house segments of the programme, Associates will be hosted for three weeks by chemical plants in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain. They will also participate in a 3-week “Chemical Engineering Skills Development” course at the University of Surrey in the UK. The Government of Japan has made an in-kind contribution to support interpretation services for the participants during their industry training in Japanese companies.

This year’s Associate Programme takes place in the context of the International Year of Chemistry 2011, a worldwide celebration of the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. To commemorate the IYC, the OPCW will hold a special Conference on International Cooperation and Chemical Safety and Security on 12 and 13 September in The Hague which will offer the possibility for online participation.

Since its inception in 2000, the Associate Programme has benefitted participants from 87 developing and transition economy countries. It has steadily grown into a major international training programme that directly contributes to the economic and technological development of States Parties through the peaceful use of chemistry, as stipulated by article XI of the CWC.  

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* Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Samoa, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.