IPEP Project Activities will reflect the objectives of the Stockholm Convention.

Four types of reports will be prepared as IPEP Project Activities:

Country Situation Reports;
POPs Hotspot Reports;
POPs Policy Briefs; and
POPs Regional Reports.

These documents will be written for various audiences and will provide the informational base for other country and local IPEP activities. In many cases, the preparation of these documents by national and local NGOs will also serve as an educational exercise that will assist them in developing their own capacity and information base, and in determining their own national and local priorities.

These reports and related materials will be used to stimulate, facilitate, and support a range of useful, POPs-related NGO activities in approximately 40 countries. These activities will include active NGO participation in the NIP development process, workshops and trainings, public awareness activities and campaigns, and similar activities. In more than 20 of the countries where the Project has activities, NGOs will receive support to participate directly in the country NIP development processes and/or to provide substantive and useful informational inputs into the process.

During the Project, NGOs will receive IPEP support to prepare approximately 100 reports. Approximately twelve of thirteen Reports will be prepared in each IPEP Region.

Country Situation Reports
A Country Situation Report will be prepared by NGOs in approximately 40 countries (approximately 5 countries in each IPEP Region). These will generally describe the POPs situation in the country, including some information about known levels of POPs and measures planned or underway to address them. Topics to be addressed will include information about the Convention ratification process in the country and information about progress under Convention Enabling Activities. Not everything will be covered in depth in every report. The report may also include country-specific and/or country-relevant information about POPs, POPs sources and pollution pathways, the extent of the harm that POPs cause, and the kinds of measures that will be required to reduce and eliminate POPs and their sources.

Country situation reports will not be aimed at a wide public audience. Rather, they will mainly be addressed to NGOs, academics, and others with a public policy interest. These reports will be used to provide the information base required by NGOs to prepare awareness raising activities and materials, identify further areas of investigation, plan campaigns, and prepare for a meaningful role in NIP preparations.

In countries where NGO capacity regarding POPs is still low, the country situation reports may be rather modest in scope. In these countries, the main value of the report may be what is learned by country NGOs in the exercise of preparing it. However, in most countries, the report will have important external value as well. In many cases, the country situation report will be a work in progress and may include contributions from more than one NGO.

The Country Situation Report will be written in the appropriate country language, and it may be translated into local languages. The Reports will also be translated into English.

POPs hotspot reports
IPEP will produce approximately 30 POPs Hotspot Reports, approximately 4 in each IPEP region. Each will identify specific POPs-related problems in a country with the intent of raising both public and government awareness. They may include reports on one or more POPs contaminated sites within a country, a country specific pattern of activities or practices that release POPs into the environment, or an existing or proposed facility that could be a significant source of POPs releases. They will also make initial recommendations on how to address the problem.

In some cases, NGOs in a single country may prepare more than one of these reports. The reports will be closely linked to public education and awareness activities and will target public audiences, but will also provide a framework for NGO involvement in NIP processes. The Reports will be translated into English.

POPs policy briefs
IPEP will produce approximately 30 country- and issue-specific POPs policy briefs, approximately 4 in each IPEP region. Each POPs Policy Briefs will be prepared by one or more NGOs in a country, and will address a specific, country-relevant policy topic that relates to Stockholm Convention implementation. Policy briefs will identify a specific POPs-related issue of importance in the country, and it will propose public policies and other solutions. Some possible topics that may be addressed are: approaches to effective malaria vector control that avoid DDT; strategies for national POPs stockpile cleanups and destruction; non-POPs strategies for crop protection and/or termite control; strategies to end illegal trade in POPs; national application of Best Available Techniques to eliminate sources of by-product POPs; proposals for national approaches for identifying and controlling PCBs in use and in wastes; community monitoring or other strategies to identify POPs exposures; etc. The Policy Briefs will be translated into English.

Regional reports
IPEP will prepare 8 POPs Regional Reports, one for each IPEP Region. Regional Reports will summarize POPs information in the region based on information contained in the Country Situation Reports, POPs Hotspot Reports, POPs Policy Briefs prepared by NGOs in the region; and may also include other available POPs-related regional information. These reports will be completed toward the end of IPEP’s second year.

These will include reports in Spanish, French, Russian and Arabic for the Latin America, Francophone Africa, NIS and Middle East regions, respectively (which will all also be translated into English).

Using the information contained in the above reports and/or fact sheets and other communications materials based upon them, NGOs will engage in Country-Based Project Activities in 30 or more countries, approximately 4 countries for each IPEP region.

Participation in NIPs
In more than 20 countries (approximately 3 per IPEP region), NGOs will receive IPEP support to participate in government-sponsored NIP preparation activities and/or to provide substantive and useful informational inputs into the process.

Training and awareness raising workshops
IPEP will support approximately 20 national or regional meetings or workshops that undertake training and/or POPs awareness raising and that target national NGOs and/or select civil society sectors (two or three per region). These workshops will increase knowledge about POPs and related issues among participants, help build a base of support for the Stockholm Convention within the country, and, in many cases, help pave the way for further POPs-related activities. The workshops will additionally provide a base of support and interest for NGO and civil society participation in NIP preparations. In most cases, the IPEP will support a single, national workshop in a country. However, in larger countries such as Russia or India, the Project may support multiple regional workshops.

Other informational, public awareness and/or campaigning activities
IPEP will support approximately 60 other Project Activities at the national, district or local level aimed at disseminating information, public awareness, and/or POPs-related campaigning efforts. Seven or eight of these activities will be undertaken in each IPEP region, and in at least four countries per region. These activities will often utilize fact sheets or other informational literature based on the documents described above.

Campaign activities may be intended to build understanding among the media and public of the benefits of supporting, ratifying, and implementing the Stockholm Convention. Other campaigns may seek to generate a strong national or district response to a more narrowly focused, POPs-related issue that illustrates the broader concerns associated with POPs.