INFO/RAC NATIONAL FOCAL POINTS MEETING
The meeting of INFO/RAC Focal Points was held online due to the sanitary conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, on 14-15 June 2021 and saw the participation of 17 representatives of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, the UNEP/MAP Acting Coordinator and the representatives MAP components.
The main objective of the meeting was to update the National Focal Points of the Regional Activity Centre for Information and Communication on the ongoing and future activities of the Centre and to review INFO/RAC’s activities in compliance with the Programme of Work 2020-2021 adopted at COP21 held in Napoli in December 2019.
The Focal Points also discussed and approved important topics in view of the next COP to be held in December 2021 in Antalya (COP22).
Almost all of the first day of the meeting was dedicated to review the progress report on the status of implementation of the Programme of Work 2019-2020 highlighting the main achievements and challenges.
Thorough presentations were given on different topics such as InfoMAP the Information System of UNEP/MAP, the online reporting systems (NBB, BCRS), IMAP Info System, InfoMAPNode, Security, Cloud and on interoperability of systems and data management.
The meeting strongly encouraged the harmonization and integration of existing national platforms into the infoMAP platform both from thematic and data management point of view and welcomed the strategic role of the INFO/RAC Focal Points as contact points in the coordination of national data flows for the MAP reporting. The meeting also encouraged to provide more information on how to report data in each specific reporting system through users guides and video-training and welcomed IMAP constant and cross-cutting support for the reporting on IMAP Info System platform.
During the meeting the different activities carried out during the last biennium 2020-2021 were presented in particular on E-learning and communication with the presentation of the different digital campaigns developed and launched, the release of the MED News newsletter and the Citizen Science activities related to the SeaWatcher App.
The Meeting appreciated the work done by INFO/RAC in close collaboration with other MAP Components and CU on the implementation of the MAP Operational Strategy and encouraged the prosecution of the work in the next biennium.
Two important documents were also presented for review and approval for the next biennium: Towards a MAP Knowledge Management Strategy and Towards a MAP Digital Transformation Strategy. The Meeting welcomed the proposed documents and endorsed the development of both strategies for the next biennium and took note on how a common strategy for knowledge management and dissemination, is required with the scope to unify operational strategies, enhance environmental capabilities and strengthen dissemination capabilities to stakeholders, institutional partners, and citizens.
The Meeting reviewed and endorsed the MAP Data Policy developed by INFO/RAC that will be submitted to the meeting of MAP Focal Points and COP 22 for adoption and acknowledge the development of the MAP Data Policy as framework to facilitate the data sharing and reducing the legal barriers.
The last part of the meeting was devoted to the presentation of the proposed plan of activities for the Draft Programme of Work 2022-2023 which was welcomed with satisfaction and reflects the good progress made in the last two biennia by INFO/RAC. The Meeting encouraged INFO/RAC to continue its efforts to promote the planned activities and their related deliverables within the whole MAP Programme of Work.