Compliance assessments are important to conduct prior to ratifying an MEA. Such an assessment provides a State the opportunity to assess its ability to comply with the terms of the MEA before ratifying it, as failure to do so could result in non-compliance the instant it becomes a Party. As such, the compliance assessment allows a State to identify and correct areas of potential non-compliance so that it is able to meet its obligations immediately upon ratification. In many cases, the compliance assessment will identify changes that need to be made to national, sub-national, and local laws to ensure compliance. Because the adoption of implementing law can be a long process, depending on the State’s legislative system, it can be important to conduct 
compliance assessments early in the negotiating process so that the State can negotiate with the full knowledge of what national measures might be necessary. Moreover, a compliance assessment can assist in the early development of necessary framework and sectoral laws to implement the MEA (see the discussion of Guideline 20
, below, devoted to implementing laws and regulatory frameworks).
Even States that have taken all necessary steps prior to ratification, however, may find that they subsequently identify areas of non-compliance after becoming a Party. In such instances, states are encouraged to consider developing a compliance plan to address these areas of non-compliance and to inform the Secretariat of the MEA of the plan. The plan may identify the specific areas of non-compliance, measures to correct the situation, and benchmarks for determining if the problems are being corrected.
The procedures and mechanisms on compliance under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety adopted by the COP-MOP at its first meeting, mandate the Compliance Committee to request or assist, as appropriate, Parties in non-compliance to develop a compliance plan within a timeframe to be agreed upon between the Committee and the Party concerned (Decision I/7).
In addition to the case studies below, many of the considerations set forth in the Checklist for Developing National Implementation Plans (following Guideline 21) may be relevant to compliance assessment and the development of a compliance plan.