The Secretariat shall:
- a) Convene an informal advisory group immediately after the close of the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties for the intersessional period to the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, to provide constructive yet robust feedback on the proposal(s) made by the Secretariat for revision of the national report format. The informal advisory group shall be composed of Parties to the Convention on the basis of the same regions as the Standing Committee, with a maximum of two representatives per region while the Chairs of the Standing Committee and the Scientific Council shall be ex-officio members of the informal advisory group. Partner organizations and relevant MEA Secretariats will also be invited to participate in the informal advisory group discussions;
- b) Taking account of advice from the informal advisory group, develop a proposal to be submitted to the Standing Committee at its 48th meeting for a revision of the format for the national reports to be submitted to the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties and subsequently, which shall as a minimum seek to achieve the following:
- i. Improve the ability of national reports to provide information on progress towards implementation of the Convention and to serve as one of the sources of information for the review mechanism established by UNEP/CMS/Resolution 12.9 on the Establishment of a Review Mechanism and a National Legislation Programme;
- ii. Address the request in paragraph 10 of UNEP/CMS/Resolution 11.2 (Rev.COP12) on the Strategic Plan for Migratory Species 2015-2023 as well as the recommendations emerging inter alia from the Strategic Plan Working Group concerning improved alignment of the national report format with the Strategic Plan for Migratory Species 2015-2023, and improving the ability of national reports to provide information on assessing progress towards the achievement of the targets contained in that Plan, without creating additional reporting burdens for Parties;
- iii. Take account of the lessons learned and recommendations arising from the analyses presented of the national reports submitted to the 11th and 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties respectively;
- iv. Take account of the other suggestions for improvements to the National Report Format contained in document UNEP/CMS/COP12/Inf.27;
- v. Take account of the views of a representative selection of Parties (ideally from all UN Regions) convened to provide constructive yet robust feedback on the proposal(s) made;
- vi. Resulting in an overall shortening and simplification of the format; and
- vii. Where feasible and to the extent appropriate, achieving improved synergies with the reporting processes of instruments within the CMS Family and with those of other Multilateral Environmental Agreements.