Notification 2015-076

Dear Madam/Sir, I am pleased to inform you that a sub-regional capacity-building workshop on financial reporting and resource mobilization for South Asia will be held on 16-18 September 2015 in New Delhi, India. The sub-regional workshop is organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It will be hosted by the Government of India, with financial support provided by the European Commission and the Government of Japan. The workshop will be held in conjunction with an event on the business case for biodiversity finance hosted by the CBD Secretariat in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CII-ITC) on 16 September 2015. The sub-regional workshop is part of a series of capacity-building workshops and webinars, organized pursuant to the request of the Conference of the Parties (paragraph 32 of decision XII/3). In decision XII/3, Parties adopted five targets for resources mobilization (paragraph 1) as well as the revised Financial Reporting Framework (paragraphs 14 and 24), and invited parties and other Governments to report thereon, using online reporting systems, where feasible, by 31 December 2015. An international technical workshop on identifying, accessing, compiling and aggregating domestic and international biodiversity-related investments and impacts was held on 5-7 May 2015 in Mexico City, Mexico. A voluntary guidance document based on discussions at the workshop will be provided to Parties soon. The objective of the subregional workshop is to enhance the capacity of participants to apply pertinent methodologies, frameworks and tools. The subregional workshop will: (i) Provide voluntary guidance for Parties, with a view to facilitating financial reporting on domestic expenditures and the development of national finance plans; and (ii) Examine methodologies for identifying, accessing, compiling and aggregating domestic and international biodiversity-related investments and impacts, with a view to presenting, sharing and reviewing experiences. In this regard, I invite you to nominate a resource mobilization expert to participate in the sub-regional workshop, preferably the official in charge of resource mobilization and/or the expert from the national statistical department working on biodiversity related expenditure. The nominees proposed should be in a position to translate the capacity and insights gained from the subregional workshop to enable their government to provide the financial report to the CBD within the above-mentioned timeframe. Nominations should be submitted using the attached nomination form, accompanied by an official letter of nomination, to the Secretariat at secretariat@cbd.int or faxed to + 1 514 288 6588, as soon as possible but no later than 17 July 2015. The participation of nominated representatives from eligible countries will be supported with a direct, economy-class round-trip ticket and a Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) for the duration of the subregional workshop, in accordance with relevant United Nations rules. I look forward to receiving your nominations and thank you for your support and cooperation. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD and Resource Mobilization Focal Points of: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka