Decision COP XIV/37

10. Adopts the scale of assessments for the apportionment of expenses for 2019 and 2020, in accordance with the current scale of assessments of the United Nations, as contained in table 6 of the present decision;

11. Also adopts the staffing table 2 of the Secretariat for the biennium 2019-2020 used for costing purposes to set the overall budget;

12. Recalls that the staffing arrangement of the Secretariat should ensure that the legal obligations under the Convention and its Protocols are met;

13. Notes the new organizational structure and post distribution as presented in, annex VII to the note by the Executive Secretary, 2 and requests the Executive Secretary to analyse the structure and staffing to ensure streamlined reporting arrangements, optimal functionality and effectiveness in the implementation of the approved work programme for the biennium 2019-2020 and in view of the expected post-2020 orientation of activities under the Convention, and to report the results of this analysis to the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth meeting;

14. Recalls paragraph 9 of decision XIII/32, and notes with concern the adjustments by the Executive Secretary to the staffing structure of the Secretariat during the biennium 2017-2018 that entailed consequent increases in the staff costs in the integrated budget for the biennium 2019-2020;

15. Authorizes the Executive Secretary, within the rules and regulations of the United Nations and without prejudice to any decision by the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth meeting, to adjust job descriptions and assignments within the present structure of the Secretariat provided that the overall cost of the Secretariat of the Convention and its Protocols remains within that of the staffing table and that there are no consequent increases in the staff costs in the integrated budget in future bienniums, and to report on the adjustments made to the Parties of the Convention and its Protocols at their next meetings;

16. Authorizes the Executive Secretary to enter into commitments up to the level of the approved budget, drawing on available cash resources, including unspent balances, contributions from previous financial periods and miscellaneous income, in accordance with the Financial Rules and Regulations of the United Nations Environment Programme;

17. Also authorizes the Executive Secretary to transfer resources among the programmes between each of the main appropriation lines set out in table 1a below up to an aggregate of 15 per cent of the total programme budget, provided that a further limitation of up to a maximum of 25 per cent of each such appropriation line shall apply;

18. Urges the Executive Secretary to further reduce the environmental impact of the operations of the Secretariat by rationalizing resource use and travel, such as by adopting wider use of videoconferencing facilities, and prioritizing official travel that is directly related to the implementation of the approved work programme;

19. Notes that limited financial disclosure hampers the ability of the Organization to be transparent and accountable, and to raise funds from a broader array of donors;

20. Requests the Executive Secretary, in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme, to find ways to provide additional financial information to enhance disclosure beyond the current financial information contained in certified financial statements of the trust funds of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to facilitate due diligence and financing decisions by Parties and other potential donors;

21. Requests the Executive Secretary, as a means to further enhance efforts to foster transparency and accountability, to establish a section on the website of the Convention to publish or provide links to up-to-date information relevant to the governance of the Convention, including, inter alia, completed and accepted audit reports, applicable financial rules and regulations, and any other relevant budgetary and financial information;

22. Also requests the Executive Secretary, in accordance with Article 14 of the Financial Rules, to have an audit undertaken on a regular basis by the Office of Internal Oversight Services and to ask for reports on the United Nations Environment Programme from the United Nations Board of Auditors, and to have the reports submitted as part of the documentation for the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties, together with the management response;

23. Further requests the Executive Secretary, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Treasury, to provide information on investments and current investment policy guidelines related to the trust funds of the Convention, and place it on the website of the Convention;

24. Invites all Parties to the Convention to note that contributions to the core programme budgets (BY, BG and BB) are due on 1 January of the year for which those contributions have been budgeted and to pay them promptly, and requests that Parties be notified of the amount of their contributions as early as possible in the year preceding the year in which the contributions are due;

25. Notes with concern that a number of Parties to the Convention and its Protocols have not paid their contributions to the core budgets (BY, BG and BB Trust Funds) for 2018 and prior years, including Parties that have never paid their contributions, and also notes that, in accordance with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards adopted by the United Nations,3 arrears estimated at 789,100 United States dollars for the Convention, 171,400 United States dollars for the Cartagena Protocol and 46,000 United States dollars for the Nagoya Protocol are outstanding at the end of 2017 and are deducted from the fund balance to cover doubtful debt and, so, cannot be used for the benefit of all the respective Parties;

26. Urges Parties that have still not paid their contributions to the core budgets (BY, BG, BB Trust Funds) for 2017 and prior years to do so without delay or conditionalities, and requests the Executive Secretary to publish and keep up to date the information on the status of contributions to the Convention’s Trust Funds (BY, BG, BB, BE, BH, BX, BZ and VB) and to keep the members of the Bureaux of the Convention and its Protocols updated so that they can provide information on unpaid contributions and their consequences at regional meetings;

27. Requests the United Nations Environment Programme, in its capacity as Trustee, to utilize all available diplomatic channels to communicate to the relevant Parties, arrears in their contributions to the trust funds of the Convention on Biological Diversity (BY, BG and BB ) from 2018 and prior years with a view to the payment of such arrears in full for the benefit of all Parties to the Convention and its Protocols, and requests the Executive Secretary to report to the Bureau and the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth meeting on the status of these arrears;

28. Confirms that, with regard to contributions due from 1 January 2005 onwards, Parties whose contributions are in arrears for two (2) or more years will not be eligible to become a member of the Bureaux of the Convention, its Protocols or the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice or to nominate a member of a compliance committee, and decides that this will only apply in the case of Parties that are not least developed countries or small island developing States;

29. Authorizes the Executive Secretary to enter into arrangements with any Party whose contributions are in arrears for two or more years to mutually agree on a “schedule of payments” for such a Party to clear all outstanding arrears within six years depending on the financial circumstances of the Party in arrears and pay future contributions by the due date, and report on the implementation of any such arrangement to the Bureau at its next meeting and to the Conference of the Parties;

30. Decides that a Party with an agreed arrangement in accordance with paragraph 29 above and that is fully respecting the provisions of that arrangement will not be subject to the provisions of paragraph 28 above;

31. Requests the Executive Secretary and invites the President of the Conference of the Parties, through a jointly signed letter, to notify Parties whose contributions are in arrears inviting them to take timely action and to thank those Parties that have responded in a positive manner in paying their outstanding contributions;

32. Notes that the trust funds for the Convention and its Protocols (BY, BG and BB) should be extended for a period of two years beginning 1 January 2020 and ending 31 December 2021, and requests the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme to seek the approval of the United Nations Environment Assembly for their extension;

33. Acknowledges the funding estimates for:

34. Invites the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme to continue the arrangement of waiving the programme support costs on the voluntary contributions for participation from the BZ and VB Trust Funds since the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity meets the criteria set out in resolution 2/18, namely that arranging participation is done by administrative staff financed from the programme support costs of the operating budget;

35. Recalls rule 30 of the rules of procedure of the Convention, and stresses the need to have a wide range of Parties attending meetings of the Parties to the Convention and its Protocols;

36. Reaffirms the importance of full and effective participation of the developing country Parties, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as Parties with economies in transition, in the meetings of the Parties to the Convention and its Protocols and, in this context, requests the Executive Secretary to take into account the relevant decisions of the Conference of the Parties and the meetings of the Parties to its Protocols on concurrent meetings and on improving the efficiencies of the structures and processes of the Convention and its Protocols;

37. Requests the Executive Secretary, in consultation with and under the guidance of the Bureau, and taking into account recommendation 2/20 adopted by the Subsidiary Body on Implementation, 4 to present a proposal for adoption at the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, to revise the structure and rules related to the BZ Trust Fund adopted at the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, 5 in order to address the perennial problem of the lack of predictable and sustainable funding and to ensure that the BZ Fund is focused on providing funding for the countries which are most in need of assistance for participation, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, and further requests the Executive Secretary to report on progress in designing measures to raise the visibility of the Trust Fund and its attractiveness for donors, drawing on experience from similar trust funds in other international forums;

38. Strongly encourages developed country Parties and other Parties in a position to do so, including in the context of the South-South cooperation, to provide the necessary financial resources to the BZ Trust Fund in order to enable the full and effective participation of representatives of developing country Parties, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, at meetings of the Conference of the Parties, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meetings of the Parties to the Protocols, the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions and the Subsidiary Body on Implementation;

39. Also strongly encourages donors to provide additional finance to allow for the participation of a second delegate from least developed countries and small island developing States at the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the tenth meeting of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol, and the fourth meeting of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol and requeststhe Executive Secretary to report on this arrangement to the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth meeting;

40. Recalls paragraph 31 of decision IX/34, and requests the Executive Secretary, when allocating the funding from the BZ Trust Fund, to continue to accord first priority to funding for least developed countries and small island developing States;

41. Requests the Executive Secretary engage with private bodies, non-governmental organizations and international organizations to seek contributions of external funds to the Special Voluntary Trust Fund (BZ), taking into account (a) the various existing guidelines for the engagement of the private sector with the United Nations system and (b) the experience of other conventions and United Nations processes with respect to the funding of the participation of eligible developing country Parties, including the least developed countries and small island developing States and Parties with economies in transition, and also requests the Executive Secretary inform the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties of further developments in this respect;

42. Encourages developed country Parties and other Parties in a position to do so, to facilitate engagement by the Secretariat with potential alternative donors to the BZ Trust Fund, including private bodies, to assist in funding the participation of eligible developing countries in meetings of the Parties to the Convention and its Protocols;

43. Requests the Executive Secretary to remind Parties in January of each fiscal year of the need to contribute to the Special Voluntary Trust Fund (BZ) at least six months prior to the ordinary meetings of the Parties to the Convention and its Protocols, to issue requests in December of each year covering the needs of all relevant meetings in the subsequent year, and to issue early invitations to other donors to make contributions;

44. Also requests the Executive Secretary, in consultation with the Bureaux, to continue to monitor the availability of voluntary contributions to the Special Voluntary Trust Fund (BZ);

45. Welcomes the generous provision by the Government of Japan of emergency financing for the biennium 2019-2020 amounting to 500,000 United States dollars from the Japan Biodiversity Fund6 to serve as working capital until sufficient funds are received in the BZ Trust Fund;

46. Decides to set aside the sum of up to 500,000 United States dollars from the accrued investment revenue of the BE fund, without prejudice to bilateral agreements that restrict the usage of interest accrued on particular voluntary contributions, that could potentially be drawn on if, in the opinion of the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, exceptional circumstances7 arise regarding the facilitation of the participation of developing country Parties, in particular the least developed countries and the small island developing States, as well as Parties with economies in transition, for priority meetings8 identified in the core budget for the biennium 2019-2020, and invites the Executive Director, if s/he is satisfied regarding the exceptional need for and the compatibility of such a draw-down with the Financial Rules and Regulations of the United Nations Environment Programme, to authorize the Executive Secretary to draw on the set-aside, in consultation with the Bureau and subject to subsequent reimbursement through new voluntary contributions to the BZ Fund, and to submit a direct report to the Parties to the Convention and Parties to the Protocols at their next meetings;

47. Notes with concern the late delivery of budgetary documents in advance of the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, and urges the Executive Secretary to take the measures necessary to ensure that documents for the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties are circulated in full respect of the rules in force and to keep the Bureau informed on the progress of budget preparation;

48. Requests the Executive Secretary to prepare and submit an updated, detailed and integrated programme of work for the period 2021-2022, which sets out the objectives, tasks to be completed by the Secretariat, and results expected in regard to each budget item, for the Convention and its Protocols, for the consideration of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention and the Parties to its Protocols at their next meetings, and a corresponding programme budget following the format of the proposed programme budget for the United Nations Environment Programme, including the supplementary information statement, for the biennium with three alternatives:

49. Also requests the Executive Secretary to introduce all possible measures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Secretariat and reflect these measures in the three reflected scenarios;

50. Further requests the Executive Secretary to report to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention and the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to its Protocols at their next meetings on income and budget performance, unspent balances and the status of surplus and carryovers as well as any adjustments made to the budget for the biennium 2019-2020.