8 February 2019

A two-day multi-stakeholder dialogue and capacity-building partnership event organized by the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS) took place on January 24 and 25, 2019 at the UN Headquarters in New York. The event aimed to provide an opportunity to build awareness and collaboration with respect to capacity-building in support of the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment - to build capacity to participate in, and make use of, integrated assessments which are important to inform decision-making by policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders.

Participants at the multi-stakeholder dialogue and capacity-building event at UN-Headquarters ©GOF

Representing the Common Oceans ABNJ Program did members of the Project on Strengthening Global Capacity to effectively manage the Areas Beyond National jurisdiction (ABNJ), who attended the meeting to partake in the discussions, but also to showcase the achievements made by the Program at the event fair. The information material that was put on display, generated much interest since the theme of the event is directly relevant to the ongoing process on the development of an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). Access the full collection of documents prepared under the Program here.

Alexis Maxwell from the Global Ocean Forum (GOF) at the Common Oceans ABNJ Program display ©GOF

Conclusions from the multi-stakeholder meeting highlighted ocean literacy, consideration of the possible role for UN Oceans in a coherent capacity development program, analysis of capacity building needs at the global, regional, national and local levels, building on existing experience, electronic dissemination of data, transparent data availability, synergy across various geographic regions, human and institutional capacity, and regular multi-stakeholder dialogue.

The official summary being prepared by the DOALOS Secretariat will include follow up items on the way forward, and will be presented to the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole of the General Assembly of the Regular Process in summer 2019. In addition, there will be a complete recording of the event on the UN web tv as well as an official summary, and meeting documents will be made available following the event on the Regular Process website here.

• Dr. Biliana Cicin-Sain, President, Global Ocean Forum ǀ [email protected]