Minamata Initial Assessment (The Minamata Convention on Mercury)

The Minamata Convention on Mercury, opened for signature in October of 2013, is the first global legally binding agreement specifically designed to address contamination from a heavy metal.  The Minamata Convention seeks to address issues related to the use and release of mercury including trade, industrial uses, and major sources of atmospheric emissions and releases of mercury into the environment, as well as long-term storage and disposal of mercury and mercury compounds.

Under the Minamata Convention, individual countries are charged with protecting human health and the environment from the risks of Mercury exposure by systematically controlling Mercury emissions and releases, including phasing out the use of mercury in certain products and processes. The major highlights of the Minamata Convention on Mercury include a ban on new Mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, control measures on air emissions, and the international regulation of the informal sector for artisanal and small-scale gold mining.

The International Negotiating Committee (INC) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) have developed a series of pre-ratification activities, called Minamata Convention Initial Assessment (MIA), that are designed to prepare countries for the ratification and implementation of the Convention.  These activities focus on four key outputs:

1. Institutional gap analysis: Review and identification of gaps in the existing institutional capacity related to Mercury and the implementation of Minamata Convention.
2. Policy gap analysis: Review of existing mercury related regulations and identification of needed policy reforms to prepare for implementation of the Minamata Convention.
3. National Mercury Inventory: Development of a national Mercury profile that includes key sectors identified for intervention and investment to reduce, and where possible eliminate, Mercury use, release and emissions.
4. Dissemination/Communication: Development of communication tools and strategies for informing all relevant stakeholder groups, including governmental agencies, NGOs, academia, public and private sectors; on activities related to the Convention.

The Project’s objective is for the Government of Nepal to undertake a MIA to establish a national foundation to undertake future work towards the implementation of the Convention.  The MIA is financed by the GEF and executed by Biodiversity Research Institute as an executing agency for UNIDO, in close coordination with UNIDO and the representatives from the Ministry of Population and Environment (MOPE). 

We are currently looking to fill the following positions to help conduct MIA activities in Nepal:

• National Project Coordinator
• Project Assistant
• Health and Education Sector Expert
• Industrial Sector Expert
• Waste and Contaminated Sites Expert

Please download full job descripions by clicking the links above. Candidates are invited to submit their CV and cover letter to molly.taylor@briloon.org with a CC to mopeminamata@gmail.com and g.eigenmann@unido.org.