The MEA project is aligned and fully integrated into the SPREP Strategic Plan 2011- 2015. The Strategic Plan codifies the current strategic priorities for the region identified and endorsed by the SPREP member countries for the SPREP Secretariat to address through its activities. They reflect national priorities that are common to all or the majority of members.
The work carried out through phase 1 of the MEAs Project highlighted the need to strengthen environmental governance in particular monitoring and reporting. This led to the designation of Environmental Monitoring and Governance as a new strategic priority under the SPREP Strategic Plan to sit alongside the three existing strategic priorities of Biodiversity, Climate Change and Waste Management. Phase 2 of the project addresses three of the SPREP Strategic priorities – Biodiversity; Environmental Monitoring and Governance and Waste Management.At the national level all countries in the region have identified biodiversity, governance and waste management as national priorities in various planning documents such as their national sustainable development plans, national development plans, national environment management strategies and MEA plans. It is also reflected in the high number of Pacific ACP countries party to and active with the biodiversity MEAS and increasing in the waste MEAs.
The overall objective is to promote environmental sustainability in ACP countries, by strengthening and enhancing the capacity of acific ACP countries to effectively mainstream and implement MEAs and related commitments in the chemicals and waste and biodiversity clusters of MEAs. It is expected that the action will ensure environmental sustainability in line with the international commitments taken by Pacific countries at the national levels through the signature of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs).
This will result in the sustained implementation of the above clusters of MEAs in the Pacific. The programme will enable Pacific ACP countries to implement in a coordinated and comprehensive manner all their commitments and obligations under global and regional environmental conventions and other legal international environmental instruments.|The specific objective is to support and strengthen institutions and other stakeholders involved in the mainstreaming and implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in Pacific ACP countries. This will be achieved through the enhancement of SPREP‟s capacity to provide MEA-related services to member states and to support synergistic implementation of MEAs in the biodiversity and chemicals/waste.
The project will be implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in collaboration with the Council of the Regional Organizations in the Pacific (CROP), government agencies and national stakeholders in 15 Pacific ACP countries.1 SPREP is an intergovernmental organization comprised of 14 Pacific ACP member countries, seven other Pacific island states and territories and four metropolitan countries.1 Although Timor Leste is not a member of SPREP, it is a Pacific ACP country, and activities undertaken by the Pacific Hub will, as far as practicable, include and benefit Timor Leste in their scope. SPREP has a mandate to promote regional cooperation on environmental management and conservation in the Pacific, which includes support to the member countries on the implementation of MEAs.
Total budget: USD 1,168,601
UNEP
SPREP