Guidance to the financial mechanism
The Intergovernmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
1. Takes note of the note by the Executive Secretary (UNEP/CBD/ICCP/2/5) concerning guidance for the financial mechanism;
2. Acknowledges the biosafety capacity-building initiatives currently being undertaken by UNDP/GEF and UNEP/GEF;
3. Recognizes the need to ensure that guidance to the financial mechanism will support in a balanced manner the objectives of the Convention and its Protocol;
4. Stresses the need for mutual information, coordination and regular monitoring in order to avoid duplications and to identify gaps and possible synergies because of the multitude of different actors undertaking various capacity building initiatives, and for an active role the Executive Secretary should play in the process.
5. Considers that guidance with respect to the financial mechanism for the Protocol can formally only be adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention;
6. Considers the need to facilitate the process and therefore invites the Conference of the Parties to the Convention at its sixth meeting to consider the practical arrangements, outlined in the present guidance to the financial mechanism for the Protocol, to be implemented by the Global Environment Facility in a timely manner;
7. Recommends that the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol consider the following eligibility criteria for funding under the financial mechanism:
"All developing countries, in particular the least developed and small island developing States among them, and countries with economies in transition, which are Parties to the Protocol, are eligible for funding under the financial mechanism for the Protocol.
"All developing countries, in particular the least developed and small island developing States among them, and countries with economies in transition, which are Parties to the Convention and provide a clear political commitment towards becoming Parties to the Protocol, are also eligible for funding under the financial mechanism for the Protocol."
8. Recommends that the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol consider guidance to the financial mechanism in the field of capacity building, including full participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House, and drawing upon the key elements requiring concrete action contained in section 2 of the Action Plan for Building Capacities for the Effective Implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (annex I of recommendation 2/9 A of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety) and any other issues identified by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety;
9. Takes into account Article 28, paragraph 5, of the Protocol, and recommends that first meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol requests the Conference of the Parties to the Convention and the Council of the Global Environment Facility to confirm that the arrangements between them provided for in the Memorandum of Understanding adopted by the Conference of the Parties at its third meeting will apply, mutatis mutandis, for purposes of the Cartagena Protocol;
10. Wishes to provide
the Council of the Global Environment Facility, so that it can take them into account at its first possible meeting, the key elements requiring concrete action contained in the Action Plan for Building Capacities for the Effective Implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, in accordance with recommendation 2/9 A adopted by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety at its second meeting.
