To promote the application of cleaner production in industrial companies and the incorporation of the concept in the national environment legislation of developing countries, UNIDO/UNEP decided to set up the National Cleaner Production Centers Programme (NCPCs). During the first phase, which started in 1994, the programme set up 10 NCPCs in Brazil, China, India, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Slovakia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Based on the encouraging progress during this first phase and the strong request from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, UNIDO and UNEP included an additional 5 NCPCs in the programme : Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Vietnam. Three more NCPC's in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Morocco were then established.

UNIDO and UNEP are uniquely qualified to promote and further develop the NCPC program,through their work experience in developing countries and their international contacts with research and consultative institutions. UNIDO and UNEP help the centers to respond to emerging trends, e.g Environmental Management Systems (EMS).

UNIDO has good technical in-house capacity for working with the industrial sector. The cooperation of the NCPC program and UNIDO's sectoral activities help the centres to obtain sector specific expertise. In the past 25 years, UNIDO had undertaken 11,000 field projects in 160 countries providing experts, equipment and fellowship otherwise inaccessible to developing countries.

UNEP has good expertise in developing environmental policies and cooperating with governments in developing countries in this field. UNEP maintains a worldwide network of working groups, which are dealing with environmental issues. These working groups are good contact points for the NCPC's. In addition, both organizations, UNIDO with its field program in 70 countries and UNEP with its regional offices, can regularly monitor the activities of the NCPC's.

Regarding UNIDO in particular, Cleaner Production is one of the Organization's new service modules. This focus received a significant boost from its international conference on Ecologically Sustainable Industrial Development (ESID) in October 1991. The Conference called upon UNIDO to among other things, provide technical and scientific institutional capacity to develop, absorb and diffuse pollution prevention techniques and cleaner industrial production processes essential for making the transition to ESID.

The NCPC program supports the mandate of UNEP in continuing its catalytic role to promote with governments, industry, research organizations and other relevant institutions. The establishment of a network will allow the transfer of Cleaner Production techniques and technologies.