Capacity building for environmental data sharing and reporting in support of a shared environmental information system (SEIS)
UN Environment is initiating a new capacity-building project in Central Asia, Africa, and Asia, involving 20countries with the objective of improving the knowledge base in support of regular environmental assessment processes and improved reporting. The project will also focus on the sharing of relevant information by ministries and other relevant national agencies using appropriate technologies and tools.
This project is being funded by the European Commission through the GPGC-ENRTP (Global Public Goods and Challenges - Programme for the Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, including Energy).
A Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) is a concept underpinned by a series of principles designed to ensure that environmental information is organized as effectively as possible and investments allocated towards monitoring and information gathering processes lead to the greatest possible benefits in terms of the use that is made of the resulting data.
Through this project UN Environment and its partners will provide technical support and build capacity to share environmental data online through national and regional portals as well as enable interested countries to link national datasets and publish data in UNEP Live global platform if they wish to do so. In addition, UN Environment will also make available to interested countries an Indicator Reporting Information System (IRIS). IRIS can be used to improve sharing and use of environmental data and reporting on Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) obligations such as UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Support for IRIS implementation at both the national and regional scales will include the adaptation of the IRIS technology to national needs and workflows.
The project will run from July 2016 to June 2019 and includes three phases, identifying country needs and priorities, building capacity and providing technical support, and finally sharing of lessons learned.
