PERSGA has approached UNIDO in 2006 and both organised a joint workshop on “Regional Promotion of Strategies to Reduce Unintentional Production of POPs in the PERSGA Region”. The purpose of the workshop was to prepare a Project Document with the same title of the workshop. Participants representing PERSGA countries agreed on the importance for each country to produce a report to serve as an inventory of the UP-POPs for the coastal areas, and that the information contained in these reports should be included in the project document to act as a baseline for the project activities.  These reports include all the UP-POPs sources and the quantity of their release in the respective countries.
A Medium-Sized Project Document (MSP) was prepared aiming at the development of an action plan and strategy for the elimination of POPs in the RSGA region, in particular the reduction and elimination of the unintentional production of POPs as per Article 5 of the Stockholm Convention (2004); and enabling the introduction and promotion of the use of Best Available Techniques (BAT) and Best Environmental Practice (BEP) to the industrial sector of the coastal zone. Saudi Arabia is in the process of ratifying the Stockholm Convention and has participated in this project but as a self financed country.The objective of the proposed project was to reduce and / or eliminate the unintentional production of POPs (UP-POPs) in key sectors of industry (cement, incineration, metallurgy
and pulp and paper) recognized as important source categories in Annex C of Article 5 of the Stockholm Convention through the introduction of BAT/BEP strategies in the industrial sector of the coast in the PERSGA eligible member countries. By achieving this goal, the project will permit PERSGA member countries attain compliance with their obligations under the Stockholm Convention on POPs, particularly those related to the industrial sector releases of
UP-POPs. The project will further contribute to the improvement of human health and environmental conditions in the coastal zone as the project is linked to national sustainable development plans of the participating countries.
The proposed project responded to country requests, addressed to GRF through UNIDO and PERSGA, for assistance in meeting regional obligations under Article 5 of the Stockholm Convention concerning the reduction of UP-POPs releases in the PERSGA coastal zones as listed in Annex C of the Stockholm Convention. The countries indicated that the reduction of UP-POPs releases in the selected industries is among the top priorities in their NIPs. Knowing
the special situation of the coastal zone, where the majority of the population and industries are present, a strong commitment has been conceptualized by initiating the UP-POPs release reduction measures in the four participating countries.