Accelerate implementation of dental amalgam provisions and strengthen country capacities in the environmental sound management of associated wastes under the Minamata Convention To protect human health and the environment from harmful effects of mercury through implementation of policies and improved practices to phase down the use of dental amalgams Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency. The project will have direct socioeconomic benefits to the public in the three target countries as the interventions aim to increase the quality, accessibility, and affordability of oral health care.In addition, the project will increase the knowledge and education of health workforce and to various levels of stakeholders in the three target countries and globally. Consumers will be exposed to high level of awareness on the harmful effects of chemicals present in dental amalgam and its associated wastes through advocacy campaigns.Healthy individuals will contribute toward a more harmonized, fair, and progressive society.Furthermore, this project is framed around Article 4 and Annex A Part II of the Minamata Convention delivering an evidence based transformative framework, which will mobilize and enable the phase down of the use of dental amalgam, recognising that this action is the most effective strategy to achieve the objective of the Convention. The project and its outputs are aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specific linkages to SDG 3 (Targets 8 and 9).Under SDG 3 (Good health and wellbeing): Target 9 (By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination), as well as supporting and contributing to Target 8 (Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all).In addition, the design of the project is oriented towards SDG 12 (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns), and SDG 6 (Water and Sanitation) through the environmentally sound management of dental amalgam and all its wastes throughout their life cycle. Priority in the project is given to ensuring that management and disposal of dental waste is conducted in an environmentally sound manner in line with the provisions of the Minamata Convention, the Basel technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of mercury waste, and the transboundary transport requirements of the Basel Convention.The activities of this proposal reflect and include all nine measures of Annex A Part II of the Minamata Convention and have been designed to enable countries to phase down dental amalgam in a measureable, equitable and sustainable manner.The project will enhance and support intersectoral dialogue and cooperation and provide social and economic information/data that will help guide and support financing and investment, including health system strengthening for phasing down the use of dental amalgam.The shift to integrated people centred health services, which will encourage dialogue and intersectoral planning between ministries of health, environment, education, finance and labour will be an integral part of the project. The principle of integrated people centred services is embedded in the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases NCDs 2013-2020andWHO World Health Assembly resolution WHA60.17 Oral health: action plan for promotion and integrated disease prevention .From the health perspective, the 2016 UN High Level Commission report on Health Employment and Economic Growth (HEEG)notes that ’investing in the health workforce’ was a major opportunity to foster political commitments and to make gains across several SDGs, including SDG 1 (poverty elimination), SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth).The 2017 UN High-level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth report also called for a fit for purpose health workforce; the right number, with the right competenceis and skills, the right skills mix, in the right place and with right conditions for decent work and lifelong learning. The report’s recommendations to transform the health workforce for the SDGs were based in part on the health workforce; six recommendations relate to what needs to be changed in health employment, health education and health service delivery to maximize future returns on investments, with a further four recommendations on how to enable the necessary changes.There is good evidence indicating that investing in the health workforce to deliver integrated people centred health services with: 1) care that is focused and organized around the health needs and expectations of people and communities, rather than on diseases; and2) such that people receive a continuum of health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, disease management, rehabillitation and pallative services, through different levels and sites of care within the health system and according to their needs throughout the life course, will yield co-benefits in terms of improved dental health.