The Mediterranean Action Plan of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP/MAP), the lead executing agency of the MedProgramme, organized the first edition of the GEF-UNEP MedProgramme’s Annual Stocktaking Meeting (ASM) on 2-3 November 2022 in Athens, Greece.
“Assess – Synergize – Move forward” was the slogan chosen for the ASM, which was organized jointly with the implementing agencies and executing partners of the eight MedProgramme Child Projects.
53 participants representing governments of participating and non-participating countries (Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Montenegro, Morocco, Tunisia and Türkiye) and various developmental and societal actors, including multilateral environmental agreements and sister UN agencies, banking institutions, intergovernmental, governmental, and non-governmental bodies, industry, research and media organizations, took part in the meeting.
Opening
Tatjana Hema, the UNEP/MAP Coordinator, and Leticia Carvalho, the Head of the Marine and Freshwater Branch at the UNEP Ecosystem Division, made opening statements.
Ms. Hema observed that “the stocktaking meeting will further enhance cooperation, and hopefully promote better management of natural resources in coastal areas around the Mediterranean”. She underscored the importance of monitoring to ensure effective implementation that meets the expectations from the MedProgramme, and recalled relevant commitments made by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, including in the Antalya Ministerial Declaration.
Referring to the global ocean as a single entity, Ms. Carvalho spoke about the important contribution that the MedProgramme is expected to make in addressing the triple planetary crisis (climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss). “The key expectation from such a wide and articulated Programme is that its outcomes will be greater than the sum of the results of the individual Child Projects or of the efforts of the individual Executing Partners or Countries” – Ms. Carvalho said, inviting all MedProgramme implementing partners to work as one, leverage innovation and multiply positive impacts at scale.
Highlights
The two-day meeting saw rich discussions on key contributions of the MedProgramme:
- Catalyzing synergy in the implementation of regional and global Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs): priority actions being implemented as part of the eight MedProgramme Child projects under under the umbrella of the Barcelona Convention foster connections with the participating countries’ obligations under other MEAs such as the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, the Minamata Convention, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The MedProgramme also provides technical and financial support that can be leveraged by the participating countries to fulfill their obligations under the relevant MEAs in an efficient manner.
- Learning and experience-sharing: The MedProgramme provides an impact-driven framework of coordinated action within which implementing agencies, executing partners and participating countries can enhance collaboration and learning, including through south-south and north-south cooperation that can go beyond the project’s lifecycle.
The ASM provided a forum for peer-to-peer learning and experience-sharing among the executing partners including sister UN agencies and banking institutions. Specific technical sessions involved in-depth discussions on chemicals and waste, International Waters (a focal area of the GEF), climate change adaptation and coastal zone management and biodiversity conservation.
Participants also thrashed out ways to accelerate the implementation of cross-cutting MedProgramme activities, including knowledge management and networking as well as gender mainstreaming. The sessions spotlighted milestones and provided recommendations to address gaps.
