Regional Training Workshop on E-waste Statistics in the Arab Region Tunis, Tunisia – 16-18 December 2019

4 years ago Ruediger Kuehr Comments Off on Regional Training Workshop on E-waste Statistics in the Arab Region Tunis, Tunisia – 16-18 December 2019

In the framework of the E-waste Monitor in the Arab Region project, the SCYCLE Programme, ITU, and UNEP, in collaboration with UNITAR, UNSD, and UN-ESCWA, organized a three-day “Regional Training Workshop on E-waste Statistics in the Arab Region”, hosted by the Centre International des Technologies de l’Environnement de Tunis (CITET) in Tunisia.
The Workshop focused on strengthening the capacity of Arab countries on e-waste statistics methodologies and data collection; sharing experiences, knowledge, and challenges; and improving national coordination, through presentation-led and group exercise sessions.
Participants were provided with, and trained on the use of, both UNU’s guidelines on e-waste statistics and UNU’s e-waste tools to help them gather and make use of statistics on new EEE in addition to used EEE released on the market, e-waste generated, environmental sound management of e-waste, other e-waste recycling, and imports and exports of used EEE and e-waste.
The workshop attracted more than 70 participants from 17 Arab countries, including representatives from ICTs ministries and regulators, national statistics offices, ministries of environments, mobile network operators and other government agencies dealing with e-waste data (municipalities, ministries, and customs), the private sector, and academia, as well as representatives from six international and regional organizations (UNU, UNEP, UNIDO, ITU, UNSD, and UNITAR).

The speakers underlined the importance of the regional project about e-waste monitoring in the Arab region, stressing that this workshop represents one of the key deliverable e-waste sources and can be the starting point for developing internationally comparable e-waste statistics.

More information on the project:
The E-waste Monitor in the Arab Region project is administered by the United Nations University – SCYCLE Programme and the International Telecommunication Union. The project’s objectives are to review existing policies and regulations, collect and improve e-waste statistics, and build regional capacity on e-waste statistics for government officials and statisticians in the Arab region. The project will produce regional and internationally comparable e-waste statistics for the Arab region and will encourage more governments to track e-waste at the national level.
The project will generate a report reviewing the current situation of e-waste management in the Arab states, analyzing trends in transboundary movement of e-waste entering as well as within Arab countries, and providing a periodic monitoring of collected e-waste statistics information. The report will help conceptualize environmental sound management of e-waste in the region and will be made available to government officials and statistics experts, policy makers, the media, and other relevant stakeholders.