Decision on Communication to submit for COP21 from INFO/RAC

At the 20th Meeting of the Contracting Parties (COP20) (Tirana, Albania, 17-20 December 2017), the Contracting Parties acknowledged the elements of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) Communication Strategy 2018–2023 as an initial approach towards the Communication Strategy. The Contracting Parties requested the Secretariat, in collaboration with the Regional Activity Centre for Information and Communication (INFO/RAC) and other Mediterranean Action Plan components, as appropriate, to further work on the basis of those elements to develop an operational Communication Strategy, including clear and concrete objectives, target audiences, key messages, methodologies, gap analysis, relevant implementation activities, timelines and indicators.

 The Operational Communication Strategy 2020-2021, developed on the basis of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/MAP Communication Strategy 2018-2023, aims at supporting the implementation of the Mid-Term Strategy (MTS) for the period 2020-2021 and contributing, through joint communication and advocacy, to the successful implementation of the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols. The strategy is in line with the UNEP publishing, media and visual identity guidelines; it is also in line with the UN system-wide efforts to achieve greater coherence in communication activities with a growing emphasis on the “Communicating as One” approach. Activities already initiated in the previous biennium will be reinforced in 2020-2021 and new ones are being planned, bearing in mind the need for concrete and measurable deliverables, particularly in terms of feasibility of planned deliverables, number and extent of actions envisaged and the aggregation of actions of similar nature (PoW 2020-21). The planned deliverables have been proposed considering that delivering activities may extend beyond 2021 also to allow flexibility in linking with the incoming preparation of the new Medium-Term Strategy.