From 17 to 21 of March 2014, the FAO/EU partnership project on “Improved pesticides and chemicals management in the Former Soviet Union” held a training on awareness raising and communication in Chisinau, Moldova.
The course brought together representatives of national NGOs and press officers from the Ministries of Agriculture and Ministries of Environment from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine to work jointly on developing communication and awareness raising strategies following their countries’ priorities as defined in the FAO/EU partnership project. The training was aiming to strengthen the capacity of specialists to contribute to the reduction of risks to public health and the environment from pesticides. The issue on awareness with regard to exposure to hazardous pesticides of vulnerable groups in agriculture will be one of the curtail points in the agenda of the training. In addition, special attention was dedicated to the need to strengthen data collection at field level on the use of pesticides and related poisoning incidents in order to create awareness among and a link to decision-making institutes at the national level, such as pesticide registrars.