Publication Date:
2022-09-21
Description:
Capacity building is an essential tenet of IOC’s mission: It enables all Member States to participate in and benefit from ocean research and services that are vital to sustainable development and human welfare on the planet. This Strategy’s vision identifies capacity development as the primary catalyst through which IOC will achieve its four high level objectives in the current 2014–2021 IOC Medium-Term Strategy. Over the past 55 years Member States have derived numerous benefits from IOC’s capacity development from the first International Indian Ocean Expedition to the revitalisation of African marine science coordination and establishment of the global tsunami warning network including the monitoring/forecasting networks that save lives (see addendum, section III). Reinforced partnerships between IOC and its Member States, other UN agencies, donors, and the scientific community have been the cornerstone of this success. During this period, the transformation of ocean science capabilities, accelerating threats to ocean health and ecosystem services, and the growing challenge of sustainable development require the IOC and its Member States to accelerate the pace of IOC capacity development. Resource constraints, both staff and funding, limit IOC’s ability to mobilise the necessary partnerships to address Member State science and services that will enhance human welfare and sustainable economic development. In 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted the Oceans and the law of the sea Reso lution (A/RES/69/245) which reiterated the essential need for cooperation, including through capacity building and transfer of marine technology, “to ensure that States, especially developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as coastal African States, are able both to implement the Convention1 and to benefit from the sustainable development of the oceans and seas, as well as to participate fully in global and regional forums and processes dealing with oceans and law of the sea issues.” 2015 will mark the establishment of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which is expected to be integrated as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). IOC has a unique international niche in ocean science, services and capacity development: (a) fostering international cooperation for sustained observations of the oceans; (b) generating oceanographic data and information products and services and interaction between research, operational, user communities and decision-makers in order to derive maximum societal benefit from new knowledge to achieve IOC’s High Level Objectives. The IOC will mainstream its natural and social science approach to capacity development in its Member States and, in particular, in Priority Africa, SIDS and Gender Equality. This strategic framework provides six outputs and numerous activities that are elaborated in detail below. These outputs call for investing in people and the institutions of which they are a part, enhancing access to scientific tools and methodologies, reinforcing IOC’s capabilities to provide services to Member States, enhancing the communication between scientific and policy makers communities, expanding ocean literacy in civil society and mobilising resources to accomplish these goals. While this framework provides general guidance on elements of an implementation plan yet to be developed, elevating IOC’s impact to the scale required is contingent on: • Reinforcing and valuing IOC staff at global and regional levels and, where necessary, participating national ocean scientific and governance institutions; • Integrating IOC global and regional mechanisms to rapidly expand Member State participation in IOC programmes: - Empowering IOC regional sub-commissions and other subsidiary bodies o engage with Member States, expanding collaboration and capacity development (including transfer of marine technology) on their coastal and marine affairs priorities - Strengthening global science programmes to increase scientific engagement with Member State coastal and marine priorities; • Recommitting to partnerships through the IOC with its Member States, UN organizations and other agencies, scientific community and civil society; • Mobilizing resources, e.g., personnel, funds, knowledge, and observing networks, to deliver the capacity development on which science, services and human communities depend; and • Continued attention to “enabling institutional conditions” as identified in discussions on “The Future of IOC”. The conclusions identify elements of a draft work plan including conducting needs assessments to establish CD work plans, mobilizing associated resources and enhanced communication and collaboration.
Description:
OPENASFA INPUT
Description:
Published
Description:
Refereed
Keywords:
Oceanography
;
Capacity Development
;
Scientific cooperation
;
Member States
;
Economic development
;
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
;
Sustainable Development Goals
;
Gender Equality
;
Ocean Health
Repository Name:
AquaDocs
Type:
Report
Format:
64pp.
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