African Preparatory Negotiation Workshop Empowers CMS Negotiators

Workshop ParticipantsEntebbe/Bonn,
28 October 2011
- A three-day Preparatory Negotiation Workshop for Africa took place from 26-28 October 2011 in Entebbe, Uganda. The workshop, which targeted CMS national focal points as well as a number of national focal points from AEWA in the African region, was jointly organized by the UNEP/CMS and UNEP/AEWA Secretariats, with support from the Division of Environmental Law and Conventions (DELC) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The workshop was also supported by Wetlands International and made possible by a financial contribution from the Governments of Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and from BirdLife International.

The workshop aimed at enhancing participants’ negotiation skills and techniques to improve their effectiveness at meetings of Multilateral Environmental Agreements and particularly in preparation for the up-coming Conference of the Parties to CMS (COP10) and Meeting of the Parties to AEWA (MOP5). The skills gained will equally help improve their contribution to other international and regional meetings and processes. In this regard, the workshop programme examined some of the items to be discussed at CMS COP10 (20-25 November 2011, Bergen, Norway) and AEWA MOP5 (14-18 May 2012, La Rochelle, France), thereby enabling participants to be well versed with COP10 and MOP5 issues, discuss them and in preparing common positions on subjects of regional interest. Furthermore, the training provided an opportunity to identify needs for further capacity building activities in Africa and possible follow-up measures.

Thirty-two participants from 25 African countries attended this negotiation workshop. It was facilitated by Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of CMS and former Senior Legal Advisor of UNEP/DELC, together with Mr. Abdoulaye Ndiaye, Regional Coordinator for West Africa from Wetlands International. Mr. Francisco Rilla Manta and Ms. Sofia Chaichee from the CMS Information and Capacity Building Unit were servicing the workshop along with Ms. Evelyn Moloko, Coordinator of the African Initiative at the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat.

The delegates actively participated in the workshop and effective applied what they had learned to the regional consultations that were already taking place during the workshop. In addition to the delegates informing themselves on key issues that will be addressed at COP10 they were also practicing some new skills toward negotiating their common positions.

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Last updated on 16 June 2014