Day 1 GSP: Introduction to the 2014 reporting and review process

Editor's Notes

• #5: The secretariat has worked on the idea for capacity development since last year together with UNEP which resulted in the approval of the MSP project (2 million by the GEF) in early 2014. Initially, the project was conceived as a full-fledged project but this idea was refused by the GEF claiming that GEF enabling activity funding are out there to be used. So this is why we have a MSP project which basically pays for the regional training sessions and some parts of the PRAIS portal (or the work relating to shifting to a new on-line platform). The other parts such as the revision of the templates are UNCCD secretariat/GM in kind contribution which lead to a simplified reporting in 2014 and 2016. It is expected that Parties (ACPs) do make contributions from their national level budget, including from the money that was received from the GEF for enabling activities (reporting and NAP alignment)
• #6: In case a country has not requested the funding for enabling activities, then this opportunity is lost. Please bear in mind that the secretariat has frequently recalled Parties to apply for whichever option countries would chose. It may be important to highlight that funding from the enabling activities should be used for the reporting process such as hiring a consultant, paying for the establishment of a monitoring system etc. in order to run this exercise effectively. Two project components 1) is capacity building comprising of the simplification and refinement process, training sessions (workshops), Helpdesk etc. 2) is relating to the necessary changes of the PRAIS portal.
• #8: The official deadline for reporting is set for June 2014 bearing in mind the work to be done from the time of submission to the posting of official documentation in time for the session (fixed by the decision). The timing is fixed and can only be changed by the ES in consultation with the CRIC and COP Bureau. The last COP Bureau meeting met recently and decided to keep the deadline for the time being but gave the ES a bit of a margin to change the dates if a) too few reports are submitted by the deadline b) if there is a possibility to get a host country for CRIC 13 which would require a change of date for the session. Taking into consideration the dates of the training workshops and the time that is left to submit the report by June 2014, it is likely that CRIC 13 would be postponed if there are not enough reports submitted. Reporting deadlines are always calculated backwards in case there is a fixed date of the CRIC. From the time of the CRIC there is a need for having official documentation in all languages up on the website for 2 months, preparing documentation needs time as well as the data analysis and possible cleaning, leading to the 30 June deadline. Please note that we did try as much as possible to adhere to the six month time period requested by Parties to report.
• #9: This slide should exemplify what can be done with the data received by Parties. Apart from preparing official documentation, information can be used to zoom in on one topic and try to compare data from different countries etc. It can be used for research and/or publication. “Public Interface”: will ensure that data is accessible online to the wider public and that the database can be queried according to some pre-defined parameters. This way, data becomes not only useful for the wider public but can also be used by Parties themselves when trying to do their own national trend analysis vis a vis the implementation of the Convention. Planning and monitoring therefore becomes more easy.
• #10: Reduced number of performance indicators Some performance indicators have been discarded i.e. CONS O 11 (knowledge sharing systems) (target achieved) question moved to CONS O 8 in order to ensure further collection for the website, Some performance indicators will be compiled by the convention institutions i.e. CONS O 9 (reporting on standardized templates) and CONS O 15 (amount of financial resources made available The reporting templates for Parties and other reporting entities have been revised and drastically shortened, making them an effective tool for communication, awareness-raising and advocacy at the national and international level UFA The format for reporting on financial flows has been significantly simplified and enhanced, with the merging of the Standard Financial Annex (SFA) and Programme and Project Sheet (PPS) into on Unified Financial Annex (UFA). The number of relevant activity codes (RACs) was reduced by 60 % Separate reporting manual The reporting templates for Parties and other reporting entities have been revised and drastically shortened, making them an effective tool for communication, awareness-raising and advocacy at the national and international levels. The explanation of how indicators need to be compiled was taken out of the templates and included in the reporting manual, making the manual the main reference guide for users experiencing methodological difficulties while reporting PRAIS platform The new PRAIS platform will also have a clear function in disseminating valuable Convention-related information for local and national decision-making on desertification/land degradation and drought. To this end, it is planned that the PRAIS platform will be equipped with data mining functionalities starting from July 2014