Based on our (the consultants) evaluation, there appear to be three priorities for immediate MA follow-up activities in addition to the steps already being taken by a variety of organizations:
• An MA communications and outreach effort that engages more effectively with decision and policy makers, especially in developing countries.
• Using the MA findings to develop sets of operational tools and methods that can be adopted and applied by practitioners.
• Training potential users of these tools and methods, and implementing case studies to demonstrate their value and broader applicability, especially in developing countries.
These steps appear vital to maintaining the momentum of the MA and we would not anticipate they should collectively involve an investment of much more than $1 million, which does not seem excessive if it were to significantly enhance the impact of a $20 million project. Key implementation partners at a global level might include UNEP, IUCN, the World Bank Institute, UNDP, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and WRI.
We encourage the active members of the MA Board's Executive Committee (which will continue to meet until the Project is closed) to develop and submit recommendations in these three areas to UNEP (as Implementing Agency of the MA Project), the other GEF Implementing Agencies and the GEF Secretariat, UNF and the CBD Secretariat.
To help focus discussion on long-term follow-up steps, we encourage the same key MA stakeholders to develop and assess options for repeating the MA in some form in several years time, ranging from a full-scale repeat to a briefer, less expensive exercise focusing on particular topics related to the MA. Options for an appropriate governance structure should be included.
We encourage UNEP to:
• Decide if it wants to take responsibility for coordinating and helping mobilize funding for MA follow-up activities and, if so, to spell out what this role might entail and discuss with the other MA stakeholders. Key roles could include: (i) following up on the recommendations made here, (ii) continued coordination of the continuing SGAs, (iii) monitoring MA impacts, and (iv) helping mobilize funding.
• For future global or regional environmental assessments seriously consider: (i) adopting the broad institutional partnership model that contributed significantly to the MA's successes, and (ii) applying the MA's decentralized, autonomous secretariat model.
