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Addis Ababa and Kampala cities air quality project underway

Addis Ababa and Kampala cities air quality project underway

UNEP is implementing the project ‘Supporting Countries to Monitor and Improve Urban Air Quality’. The overall objective of the project is to support the implementation of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) Air Quality Resolutions, as adopted in its first and third session (Resolutions 1/7 and 3/8), by supporting countries in Africa and Latin America in monitoring and improving their urban air quality. The outcome of the project will include the improvement of urban air quality in project countries and cities, increased air quality monitoring in targeted countries, and the development of tools and best practices that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will disseminate to other interested countries and cities so they can replicate these efforts.

The project is providing technical support to target cites in Africa (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Kampala, Uganda) and Latin America (San José, Costa Rica and Lima, Peru) to set up affordable air quality monitoring networks. Based on the monitoring data available in each city, UNEP will work with partners to identify sources of air pollution and in doing so build capacity for developing a source apportionment. UNEP, with partners, will also develop a set of tools and methodologies to support cities with the implementation. The first tool will provide information on how to set up affordable air quality monitoring networks using affordable sensors as well as information on how to calibrate and maintain these networks. A second tool will support countries in conducting data analysis on specific applications. A third tool will support cities in developing city-wide air quality improvement strategies.

In Africa, UNEP is partnering with the Environmental Compliance Institute (ECI) to deliver support for strategy and action plan development for improved urban air quality in Addis Ababa and Kampala cities; to develop tools and guidance through capacity building workshops on air pollution reduction strategy development; and to disseminate the lessons learnt, tools and methodologies developed to a wider group of countries at regional level.

In Uganda, ECI is coordinating the development of the Kampala City Clean Air Action Plan. The lead national partner is Kampala Capital City Authority. A project inception workshop was held on 16th July, 2019. This was followed a capacity building workshop on clean air action planning on 17–18 December 2019. The key output of this event was an agreed outline of the proposed Kampala City Clean Air Action Plan. Development of the action plan is on-going.

In Addis Ababa, ECI is coordinating technical assistance for implementation the Addis Ababa Air Quality Management Plan. ECI will develop and deliver training modules on air quality action plans, policy and regulatory cycle development, implementation, enforcement and compliance. The lead national partner is Addis Ababa Environmental Protection Authority.

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