• Introduction
• Objectives

At the last conference of Nairobi (May 2004), it was reported that more than 50% of the gasoline consumed in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) was already unleaded. Given the progress achieved in reducing and even completely eliminating leaded gasoline in many countries, the work program of the Clean Air Initiative should now focus first on the actions required to complete the phasing out of leaded gasoline in the entire region by December 2005, as stated in the Dakar Declaration of June 2001, and subsequently to prepare effective actions to continue improving the air quality in the cities of SSA. It is expected that the meeting will conclude on an agreed work program comprising the activities and projects to be executed under the leadership of the partner institutions.

As such, the objectives of this Third Steering Committee meeting are:

1. To identify the efforts still required in certain countries to formulate and implement as soon as possible national action plans for the phasing out of leaded gasoline.
   
2. To agree on the process that should allow for continuing the improvement of the quality of motor fuels (gasoline and diesel), including a plan to fighting the adulteration of these fuels, and for harmonizing the fuels technical specifications at the sub-regional level.
   
3. To start discussing the regulations that must to be enforced for improving the vehicle fleets. This includes the regulations:
4. • to limit in general the age of the vehicles entering the car fleets and, in particular, restricting the entrance of gasoline vehicles –new or second hand- not equipped with functioning catalytic converters,
   • to improve the maintenance practices, in particular of vehicles that are already identified as gross polluters. This is the case of badly maintained and improperly fueled two-stroke mopeds and motorcycles
   • to be enforced in the medium term for the implementation of realistic inspection and maintenance programs that could be designed using best international experience.
     
5. To present the concepts considered for developing air quality monitoring procedures in the large SSA cities
   
6. To present the scope of work and identify the local and outside partners for city case studies considered for the coming months.
   
7. To exchange information on the specific work programs and projects of the partner organizations and to establish synergies and complementary activities.