The Aarhus clearinghouse progress report the integration

The Aarhus clearinghouse progress report & the integration of capacity building November 2005

Clearinghouse’s Renewed Mandate DECISION II/3 On Electronic Information Tools and the Clearing-house Mechanism adopted in Almaty at Second Meeting of the Parties (May 2005) “Welcoming … the establishment of a clearinghouse mechanism and the launch of the UNECE Aarhus Clearinghouse for Environmental Democracy”

In Almaty, the Meeting of the Parties… 2. Invites Parties, Signatories and other interested States to develop a national node of the clearing-house mechanism with legal and practical information on issues related to the Convention at national level, linked to the UNECE Aarhus Clearinghouse for Environmental Democracy, and invites other stakeholders to submit relevant information to the clearing house; …

3. Decides to extend the mandate of the Task Force on Electronic Information Tools with the following programme of work: . . . (d) Maintenance and further development of the clearing-house mechanism, including development of guidance materials and a programme of training workshops in support of capacity building for the national nodes of the clearing house while avoiding duplication of work.

“ 20 ” Aarhus CH national nodes have so far been designated

The Resource Directory holds 730 separate entries. Each entry is ‘tagged’ with one or more thematic attribute: Access to Information Public participation Electronic Tools Access to Justice PRTRs Convention Compliance Strategic Decision-making GMOs 500 330 225 174 165 112 109 82

Resources entries by activity: Research 366 Legislation 297 Projects 266 Policy 195 Procedures 184

Source of entries by organizational type: NGOs 359 Intergovernmental organizations 223 Government 181 Academia 72

Leaders’ entries among Parties and Signatories All sources United Kingdom + — 63 European Commission + — 30 Kyrgyzstan + — 19 Armenia, Georgia + — 17 Kazakhstan +/ — 16 Azerbaijan + — 14 Germany + — 11 Belarus +, Ireland +, Ukraine — 10 * Bulgaria +, Italy + — 9 * Republic of Moldova +, Switzerland — 8 * Norway, Tajikistan + — 7 * Romania, Spain, FYR Macedonia — 6 *______ * each + designated Aarhus website / not operational

Visits 2005 to date

Next Steps underway… ü Ongoing outreach with resource providers ü Fresh News features ü National node capacity building ü Content management guidance Help page (for users) Upgrade web calendar of principle 10 related events ü Clearinghouse information exchange ü Integration of capacity building information

Capacity building for implementation of the Aarhus Convention n Aim: to coordinate capacity building activities n How: by sharing information and by cooperation n Challenge: timely and efficient sharing of information on past, on-going and future capacity building activities n A solution: develop a framework to share capacity building information, i. e. through the Aarhus Convention Clearing House. n Other solutions?

Framework for integrating capacity building into the Clearinghouse Access to Information Public Participation Access to Justice PRTR GMO Electronic tools Strategic Decision-making Convention Compliance Legislation Policy Procedures Research Government NGOs IGO Academia Capacity Building: Info and training materials Projects Events Experts Needs Build a Query Processing the query Result output Regions Sub-regions Countries

Capacity building needs identified through reporting and other sources Aarhus Convention implementation Activities for building capacity Capacity building needs identification Reporting, info sources (e. g. NIRs, TAI, UNITAR) Assessment of the implementation

Further developments n Identify and agree on the way/mechanism for the partners to provide information. n Develop a user-friendly uploading mechanism, a database and a GUI integrating the capacity building components into the Clearinghouse. n Provide access (login and username) to the partners to enable the submission of available information on capacity building.

Modified GUI Submission mechanism Database Specific output Specific query Users Capacity Building Partners National Nodes Further developments

Further developments UNEP REC/CEE WRI/TAI/ PP 10 UNITAR ECO-Forum OSCE Milieukontact Oost Europa EC WB National nodes CAREC