Report of the Global Eliminating Mercury Skin Lightening Products (SLPs) Kick-off Meeting

Overview

The project Eliminating Mercury Skin Lightening Products (SLPs) was developed to reduce the risk of exposure to mercury added products through activities targeted at better regulation, reducing production, trade and distribution, capacity-building, awareness-raising and knowledge management at the global level.

Project funding is provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with significant co-financing from partners and participating project countries. The project is implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), co-executed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) with additional targeted technical assistance provided by the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership (UNEP GMP). The participating project countries are Gabon, Jamaica, and Sri Lanka.

To initiate project activities with each of the project country focal points, introduce related stakeholders to the project and share information on the issues related to eliminating mercury-added SLPs, a Global Kick-off Meeting and Stakeholder Consultation meeting was held from the 14 – 15 February 2023 at WHO Headquarters (WHO-HQ) in Geneva, Switzerland. Online participation was also facilitated via the Zoom platform.

The meeting was organized by WHO in collaboration with the UNEP and BRI. Each of the project countries were represented by focal persons from their respective environment ministries and health ministries.

Representatives from several project co-financing partners attended in-person or virtually. Attendees from various related sectors provided input in panel discussions that were held over the two-day meeting.