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Guidance for other countries

To support the development of preventive chemicals control in low and middle income countries, the Swedish Chemicals Agency has developed guidance giving an overview of the areas important for national chemicals control. There are also guidance documents and tools available from several international organisations.

The Swedish Chemicals Agency's guidance documents on national chemicals control for other countries

To support other countries, the Swedish Chemicals Agency has produced guidance documents on national chemicals control. The purpose is to provide an overview of the different areas that are important for a national preventive chemical control and how such a system can be developed.

The documents should be read as a supplement to the so called LIRA guidance on legislation, institutional structures and funding for preventive chemical control that was produced by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the Swedish Chemicals Agency.

The documents are in English and they are part of the guidance series "Guidance on national chemicals control for other countries". We are planning to provide the guidance documents also in French and Spanish. Some of the guidance documents in French and Spanish are already available below. 

Based on some of these guidance documents, UNITAR and KemI have worked together to develop a series of online courses to assist national officers and key stakeholders on Chemicals and Waste Management issues. After successful completion, a certificate will be delivered for each course. You can see the full list of courses on this page External link..

If you have questions regarding the content of the guidance documents or would like to discuss any issue related to them, do not hesitate to contact us. If your country is qualified for development aid according to OECD/DAC and have questions regarding establishment and development of your national chemicals control, we can also offer advice on such issues through e-mail, telephone etc. Read more about our helpdesk for countries.

The guidance documents are also used in the Advanced International Traning Program (ITP) and other trainings and workshops.

This short document presents the benefits of a preventive chemicals control and the disadvantages of the lack of such. It also describes how the preventive chemicals control relates to the various stages of the life cycle of chemicals.

Control of chemicals placed on the market

The purpose of this guidance document is to give support to low and middle income countries that want to establish a sustainable financing for institutional capacity and for other tasks directly linked to preventive chemicals control.

The guidance document is available in English, French and Spanish.

The guidance document on risk reduction of chemicals is about risk mitigation as part of an effective system for chemicals management, and can support countries that want to introduce and develop national chemicals control. The document focuses on preventive chemicals control, and addresses various methods to reduce the risks of chemical substances in chemical products and articles.

The guidance document is available in English, French and Spanish.


A national legal framework is central to a functioning chemicals control. This guidance document focuses on how countries can establish such a framework, focusing on legislation for preventive chemicals control concerning placing on the market of chemicals.

The guidance document is available in English, French and Spanish.

The document provides guidance to other countries on how to set up an efficient system for the enforcement of chemicals placed on the market. Placing on the market takes place in the country, and the guidance focuses therefor on market surveillance rather than control at the border. An important part of enforcement is inspections, and in particular of producers and importers. Inspection of retailers is also included in the guidance, which also contains practical advice on how to control classification, labelling and safety data sheets.

The guidance document is available in English, French and Spanish.

 

This guidance document has a special focus on how to find information on companies producing and/or importing chemicals on the domestic market as well as identifying those chemicals. This information is needed, for instance, in the development, implementation, and enforcement of legislation and in giving targeted information to companies as well as for possible systems for cost recovery. The target group is countries (governments and authorities) that want to set up an efficient system for the sound management of chemicals. 

The guidance document is available in English and Spanish.

The aim of this guidance is to provide an overview of procedures and measures for hazard and risk assessment and risk management of pesticides, with a special focus on so called Highly Hazardous Pesticides. The purpose is to help authorities to take regulatory actions to reduce the negative impact of pesticide use on people's health and the environment. The guidance is based on the approach of using information and assessments generated by authorities in other countries or by international agencies.

The guidance document is available in English, French and Spanish.


This guidance provides an introduction to hazard assessment and risk assessment of chemicals with regards to human health and the environment. It presents key terms and concepts and explains the general approach.

The aim is to help those developing legislation to consider the role of hazard and risk assessments. It will also guide authorities on how to interpret and evaluate existing data on chemicals and existing assessments, both from industry and from other countries and organisations. For those who need to do a full risk assessment, it gives guidance to sources of further information on how to perform a risk assessment.

The guidance document is available in English, French and Spanish.

You can also find the whole series "Guidance on national chemicals control" presented among our publications on our website.

Guidance from international organisations

Several international organisations have also developed documents and tools for guidance to support the establishment and development of preventive chemicals control. The Swedish Chemicals Agency has contributed to the development of some of these documents and tools.

Guidance on chemicals control

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has developed a publication series on chemicals control. These documents have been developed with the aim to assist governments towards establishing or improving their chemicals control.

The series consist of four documents - one information document with arguments for establishing chemicals control and three guidance documents. The guidance documents offer suggestions on structure and funding a national authority, on risk reduction tools and on enforcement. These documents complement the UNEP LIRA Guidance (see below). All the documents are available in English, French and Spanish.

The publication series with guidance on chemicals control from UN Environment External link.

LIRA Guidance - Legislation, institutional infrastructure and financing

This guidance document, published in 2015, is known as the LIRA Guidance (Legal and Institutional infrastructures and measures for Recovering costs of national Administrations). It aims to provide practical support for strengthening national legislation and institutional set-ups for chemicals management. It includes proposals for measures for financing necessary administration activities in this regard. The document is available in English, French and Spanish.

Legal and Institutional infrastructures for the sound management of chemicals and measures for Recovering the costs of national Administration (LIRA guidance)(on UNEP's website) External link.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has developed a guidance document on how to integrate sound management of chemicals into countries development planning processes.

UNDP Guide for Integrating the Sound Management of Chemicals into Development Planning (PDF, 2.7 MB) External link.

International code of conduct on Pesticide management

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations together with World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a code of conduct for pesticide management, and several related guidelines and tools.

The International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management (on FAO's website) External link.

Guidelines and tools for implementation of the Code of Conduct on Pesticide Mangement (on FAO's website) External link.

FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit

The FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit is a decision support system for pesticide registrars in developing countries. It aims to assist registrars in the evaluation and authorisation of pesticides.

FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit (on FAO's website) External link.

The Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) consists of organisations that cooperates within the field of chemicals and SAICM. IOMC have a platform called the IOMC Toolbox, where guidance and tools relating to different aspects of chemical management are presented (e.g. the LIRA Guidance). The toolbox can be used by countries that want to develop their chemicals control.

IOMC Toolbox for Decision Making In Chemicals Management External link.

Last published 12 March 2023