BANGKOK, 29 September 2018 — Following a successful training of new National Ozone Officers from the Pacific Island Countries, UN Environment OzonAction organized a similar training for Ozone Officers from South Asia and South East Asia. The two-day training, also conducted in Bangkok, Thailand was held from 28-29 September 2018.
The newly trained Officers were from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Thailand and Vietnam. Performance of these officers in their respective ozone units in developing projects, managing national strategies, reporting data, developing and enforcing policies, working with national and international institutions, directly or indirectly will affect the status of their countries' compliance with obligations under the treaty and the levels of the Ozone Layer protection. Also, bearing in mind that some of the countries within this region are large-mid volume consuming countries with manufacturing sectors, will likely make the work of National Ozone Units complex and challenging. Mr Zia Ul Islam, National Ozone Officer of Pakistan highlighted that, “The role and responsibilities of NOU are increasing manifold to meet the challenges of the market and national obligations to the Treaty. I thank UN Environment for providing us with this opportunity to understand and refresh our role and responsibilities as a National Ozone Office of a country.”
During the training, participants received essential information about the Montreal Protocol, details about the roles, responsibilities and expectations of Ozone Officers and their teams, the activities that a National Ozone Unit needs to undertake, and the key skills required for daily operations to efficiently support the implementation of the Montreal Protocol in their countries.
The training programme was jointly delivered by UN Environment OzonAction, and representatives of the Multilateral Fund and Ozone Secretariats who were, in parallel, also attending the Network Meeting of Pacific Island Countries. A senior National Ozone Officer, Ms Miruza Mohamed from Maldives’ Ministry of Environment and Energy also contributed to discussions and provided insight and knowledge from years of working as an Ozone Officer and managing an Ozone Unit.
Mr Ahmad Shoaib Noorzad from the National Ozone Unit in Afghanistan stated that, “Quality is much better than quantity! The information shared during these two days of training will definitely benefit the National Ozone Units (new and old) especially in the area of reporting and preparation of tranches.” The new Ozone Officer of Lao PDR, Mr. Inthanongsone Inthavongsa, along the same line of thought said, “As I have just joined the NOU, this training came at the right time to strengthen my knowledge on the Montreal Protocol. I have acquired new information, knowledge and new experience, which would definitely support my day-to-day work. I found the interactive training method very effective and impactful especially in the area of communication and problems solving”.
To address the challenges of the high turn-over of National Ozone Officers in general, OzonAction’s Compliance Assistance Programme (CAP) uses a number of approaches such as, frequent communication with and mentoring for National Ozone Officers; direct support via country missions; south-south cooperation for on-the-job training etc. in addition to hands-on training workshops.
The next training for new Ozone Officers is scheduled for Anglophone Africa in 2019.
Participants highly appreciated the interactive setting of the training. They participated in group exercises, puzzles, crossroads and role-play activities.
Participants trying out the UV sensitive beads under direct sunlight
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mikheil Tushishvili
Programme Officer, OzonAction
UN Environment
Tel: +33 1 44 37 14 71
Email: mikheil.tushishvili@un.org
Shaofeng Hu
Montreal Protocol Regional Coordinator, Asia and the Pacific Office
Tel: +662 288 1255
E-mail: hus@un.org
Liazzat Rabbiosi
Montreal Protocol Officer, Asia and the Pacific Office
Tel: +662 288 1255
E-mail: rabbiosi@un.org
