Developing countries and countries with economies in transition face special challenges in meeting their obligations under MEAs. Even with the best intentions, these countries can still fall short of full compliance and enforcement, due to insufficient financial resources, lack of scientific or technical knowledge, an underdeveloped legal and enforcement infrastructure and related problems.
Capacity building and technology transfer are critical tools without which developing countries and transitional economies will remain disadvantaged and unable to reap the environmental, social and economic benefits offered by full compliance with MEAs.
Many declarations and policy statements underline the importance of capacity building and technology transfer, such as Agenda 21 and the 2002 WSSD Plan of Implementation. More specifically, many MEAs expressly provide for capacity building and technology transfer efforts to improve compliance, taking into account the special situations of developing countries, and countries with economies in transition including Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Examples include the Convention on Biological Diversity (Article 12), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (Article 19), the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Article 10A and B), and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (Article 18). The Convention on Biological Diversity has a number of relevant provisions: Article 12 (research and training), Article 16 (access to and transfer of technology), and Article 19 (handling of biotechnology and distribution of its benefits).
Capacity building assistance has been made available to countries by a number of major international organisations including UNEP, UNDP, UNIDO, the World Bank, FAO, UNICEF, and others. Lately, many non-governmental bodies and some advanced countries are beginning to be active in this sphere. A good example of this is the myriad of “Type II partnerships” launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. These partnerships provide an opportunity for international organisations, NGOs, developed and developing countries to all work together to identify the specific needs of developing countries regarding particular environmental problems and to develop programmes and initiatives to address these problems.
Guidelines 34(b)
and 43, and accompanying analysis, provide additional examples and detail on capacity building. For information on training and capacity building for MEA negotiators, see Guidelines 10 and 11. Following Guidelines 18 and 19, there is a case study on “Assistance to New Parties to the Ramsar Convention” that highlights capacity building; see also the case study on “Implementing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Morocco” following Guideline 21.