Harmonization of National Reporting for MEAs

Most multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) require Parties to report at regular intervals on the measures they have taken to implement the agreement. National reporting serves a number of purposes, such as the demonstration of Parties’ compliance with the provisions of the agreement, providing an overview of the status and the effectiveness of implementation, supporting the identification of future priorities, enabling decision-making and facilitating the identification of interactions with other processes. However, as governments accede to the increasing number of MEAs in recent years, there is a growing recognition that the reporting burden has increased, requiring the governments to prepare a multitude of reports. The reporting formats are often complex, and many questions are similar to those in reporting formats of other conventions, often leading to the duplication of work between the national focal points of different conventions.

In order to address these issues, a number of bodies of the Biodiversity-related MEAs have called for the better information management system related to national reporting for MEAs. Future reporting at the national level would benefit from a number of elements. Firstly, the information that is needed for national implementation of agreements needs to be identified. Secondly, it should be determined how this information can best be managed, for example through a national biodiversity database, and the identification of thematic information modules required for reporting. Thirdly, institutional arrangements need to be made, including liaison between the information managers and the convention focal points.

Based on the above recognition, UNEP, in collaboration with UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), launched the project which aims to assist countries and MEA Secretariats in streamlining their national reporting processes, through research and capacity development activities focused on core reporting and thematic reporting, as well as through pilot activities at the national level.

List of activities