Bangkok, 14 October 2022 ‒ The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) OzonAction Compliance Assistance Programme (CAP), Asia and the Pacific Office organized a virtual orientation workshop for 69 (32 female and 37 male) new National Ozone Officers (NOO) and other staff members of 24 National Ozone Units (NOUs) in two sessions consecutively on 12 and 14 October 2021.
As part of regional CAP services, the CAP team organizes orientation workshops annually to provide newly appointed Ozone Officers and their staff with fundamental knowledge and information needed to effectively support their governments in meeting commitments under the Montreal Protocol. The last in-person workshop was held in December 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand however, due to the travel restrictions and safety/health concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual orientation could not be held in 2020.
This year, as an alternative, virtual training workshops with focused topics were proposed to meet the needs of new NOO and NOU staff who were on board in 2020 and 2021, as requested by countries and as per the CAP 2021 workplan. This orientation workshop is based on the standardized training of the new Ozone Officers developed by OzonAction, but adjusted, shortened, and adapted to fit virtual delivery constraints.
The usual in-person workshop programme is rich in content that covers two full days, but for the virtual version, the programme content was compacted to be delivered through two two-hour sessions for a total of four hours of training. Session 1 of the workshop covered a brief overview of Ozone Depletion and the Montreal Protocol as well as overviews of Montreal Protocol implementation through key areas such as International Framework, National Framework and the NOU’s Function, and Opportunities and Challenges. Session 2 covered more specific topics such as Import/Export Licensing/Quota System for the Controlled Substances, Country Programme and Article 7 Data Reporting, Multilateral Fund (MLF) projects development and implementation, and working with national stakeholders.
Presentations were delivered by regional CAP team members as well as Mr. Mikheil Tushishvili, Programme Management Officer from the OzonAction Global team.
Between the presentations, the sessions contained several activities that were designed to strengthen participants’ knowledge and understanding of presented information and to improve their engagement in discussions. Firstly, randomly selected participants selected one year between 1985 to 2018 that was memorable to them and in return, they learned what kind of Montreal Protocol related significant event happened in that particular year. Participants also jointly solved a crossword puzzle and checked their knowledge of Montreal Protocol control measures. Session 2 started with a quiz on the information from Session 1 and later the participants participated in an activity on how to recognize legal and illegal imports by investigating the package, cylinder, trade and chemical name, HS code, UN number, etc. of the imported refrigerants by comparing images of real and fake products.
The orientation workshop was organized successfully as planned content was delivered effectively together with active participation from new NOOs and NOU staff, despite the virtual setting and condensed time. At the end of the meeting, the NOUs expressed that the workshop was fruitful for them, and it filled a gap of not having the usual in-person training. All presentations and video recordings of the meeting were shared with NOUs as per their request.
For more information:
Mr. Shaofeng Hu
Senior Montreal Protocol Regional Coordinator
UNEP, CAP, Regional Office of Asia and the Pacific (ROAP)
Email: hus[at]un.org
