Happy 40th Anniversary!

Pesticide Action Nexus Association of Ethiopia (PAN-Ethiopia) is a non-governmental organization established to work on environment and development to contribute to the eradication of poverty in Ethiopia through raising awareness of the public in order to prevent the public health and environmental impacts of pesticides and other hazardous chemicals.

Its main purpose is to enhance and promote safe and sustainable environment protected from harms posed by hazardous chemicals by promoting the close collaboration of government, non-governmental organizations; civil society interest groups, urban and rural communities.

In its course of project implementation in Ethiopia, PAN-Ethiopia established strong collaboration with Oeko-Institute. Since 2012 we have successfully accomplished two phases of e-waste management related researches and the first Lead Acid Battery Recycling assessment as part of the Lead Acid Battery Recycling Africa Project. These projects not only set baseline understanding of the issues nationally but also they have got recognition and received high reflection at the United Nations level environmental agreement meetings.

Looking at the exemplary work Oeko-Institute have been doing in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and other African countries and considering the grassroots and policy level work it has been contributing to in the last 40 years, I wish Oeko-Institute have more branches outside of Germany with particular and special emphasis in Africa, where chemical issues are big human health and environmental challenges that the institute can greatly contribute more in mitigating those challenges.

I wish the institute and its hard working staff more success in the years to come.