POPs are carbonbased chemical compounds and mixtures that are:

• Persistent and mobile (there is evidence of’worldwide dispersal by air and surface and ground water)

• Fat (lipid) soluble and bioaccumulative

• Potentially toxic, harmful, and injurious to people, wildlife, and the environment of the whole globe

For these reasons, the international community has called for urgent global actions to reduce and eliminate the production and release of these chemicals. SGP project interventions will concentrate in two areas: I) meeting the “public information, awareness, and education” obligations of the POPs Convention. SGP will fund limited number of projects in each countly that support the participation of NGOs and CBOs in the development of national implementation plans (NIPs) of the POPs convention; and 2) where the governments have already developed such an NIPs, SGP funding will focus on the implementation of the NIPs at the community level, including demonstration of good models/approaches, innovative activities, and replication and upscaling of successful practices in reducing and controlling POPs.

Priorities for POPs focal area at the national level can be found in the National Implementation Plans lodged at Stockholm Convention website (www.pops.int).

• OP14 - Draft Elements of an Operational Program for Reducing and Eliminating Releases of Persistent Orgainic Pollutants