A National Twinning Workshop on the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention held in Morocco – Jan 25, 2014

A National Twinning Workshop on the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention was held in Casablanca, Morocco, between the 25 and 26 November 2014.  The Workshop is the first example of the twinning concept under the GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Partnerships Project, in which a Project Lead Partnering Country, experienced in the development of national BWM assessments and strategy, assists a country from the region to establish a national task and explains the benefits and importance of adopting a national strategy for a smooth implementation of the Convention.

The Workshop, which was organised by REMPEC, funded by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), through its Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme (ITCP), and supported by the GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Partnerships’ Project (GloBallast), partnered the Turkish Maritime Administration (Lead Partnering Country under the GloBallast Project) and the Moroccan Administration.    

The two-day Workshop provided an effective platform for participants to exchange views and information on the various requirements of the implementation process of the Convention and the Turkish case provided practical real examples to discuss the internal and external difficulties during the implementation process. Twenty-three participants attended the National Workshop.