Strengthening capacities to implement the GHS in Senegal

1. Strengthening capacities to implement the GHS in Senegal Progress report Ousmane SOW

2. Activities 1. National planning meeting 2. Steering committee 3. SituationAnalysis 4. Tests of comprehensibility

3. National planning meeting March 14, 2005 was held in Dakar the national planning meeting of the GHS project under the presidency of the Ministry of the Environment, UNITAR and Swiss Embassy. This meeting permitted to determine the four sectors concerned with the GHS implementation.

4. National planning meeting The four sectors are as follows: 1. Industry 2. Agriculture 3. Transport 4. Consumption

5. National planning meeting The meeting also permitted to present the various phases of the pilot project of the GHS which must take 20 months: • Phase 1:Preparation of the situation Analysis /gaps and tests of comprehensibility: April to September 2005 • Phase 2:Capacity building targeted on the GHS: October 2005 to August 2006 • Phase 3:Development of a strategic plan for the adoption of the GHS in 2008: September 2006 to November 2006

6. Steering committee A steering committee made up of 4 working groups was formed with terms of reference well defined on the basis of the sectors: • Industry • Agriculture • Transport • Consumption

7. Situation analysis The situation analysis was carried out and it showed: • a weakness on the level of the comprehension of the labelling and the classification for the majority of the actors concerned; • an inexistence of a legal and lawful framework and; • a lack of infrastructures of hazards communication relating to chemicals.

8. Tests of comprehensibility From 17 to 19 August, 2005, was held the national workshop on GHS comprehensibility testing. Several actors of the administration and the civil society took part in this meeting.

9. Tests of comprehensibility During the workshop, the participants were initiated in the use of this questionnaire which comprises six (6) modules. Each module was the subject of a thorough analysis in an interactive way and clarifications were brought by Mrs Andrea Rother of the Medical School of Public Health, University of Cape Town.

10. Tests of comprehensibility Main recommendations resulting from this workshop: • integration of the training on the tools of GHS hazards communication in the school course of the pupils; • translation in our local languages of the tools of GHS communication; • training of all categories of actors exposed to the risks of chemicals;

11. Tests of comprehensibility • availability of the workers who are in permanent contact with chemicals to have safety data sheets; • need for adopting the international regulation, especially, with regard to the transport of the dangerous goods;

12. Tests of comprehensibility • installation of a regulation on the labelling and the classification of chemicals at the national level for the application of GHS; • installation at the national level of a regulation on the transport of the dangerous goods; • need for making more significant certain pictograms, in consideration of our sociocultural context.

13. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION