Assist policy communications

The Sixteenth Meeting of the Executive Committee decided to implement the following procedural modifications to assist policy communications:

• at the end of a sub-committee summary, include a short section aimed at identifying policy issues which surfaced, and the operational implications if there is a need for elaboration. It is felt that generally, the identified policy issue and decision will normally be clear. In most cases, however, the communications process could still be facilitated by an explanation or a statement describing the operational implications.

• once a policy issue from the Sub-Committee has been addressed and approved by the Executive Committee, then the operational implications (if any) identified in the sub-committee report should also be reflected in the final report. After the meeting, as an ongoing activity, when a need or an issue arises relating to the new policy, and an agency needs clarification, then the agency should work with the Secretariat to clarify.

4. after each meeting, the Policies, Procedures, Guidelines and Criteria of the Multilateral Fund would be updated and provided to the agencies, which would then transmit this to the field offices and project managers in the field. When the Guidelines are updated, an addendum should be placed at the front of the Guidelines document which simply highlights the recently adopted changes. If the existing "paper deployment system" were to be retained, then an issuance of a complete document should be considered after each meeting of the Parties, with only updates issued after each Executive Committee meeting. This would save paper and mailing expense. A less costly and more rapid deployment could be accomplished, however, by providing the complete guidelines to the Agencies on computer disk. The Agencies can deploy in correct format through their E-mail systems to the field offices. UNDP has volunteered the use of their field offices, who could print and then copy the guideline book for the respective local Government Agency. Inclusion in OzonAction Information Clearinghouse would also assure improved coverage of the communications. UNEP's Regional Networks may be another forum for discussion and clarification.

5. the agencies and Secretariat should work together to develop a process that allows the key agreements reached verbally to be documented and shared more widely.

The Implementing Agencies will develop for the Executive Committee's consideration a paper giving examples of where clarification of decisions and their implications would have been useful, and the format that could have been used in that case. The paper would take into account that the intent would be to inform better those affected by such decisions, namely the Executive Committee members, the Implementing Agencies, Parties to the Montreal Protocol and enterprises in Parties operating under Article 5.

The Sixteenth Meeting of the Executive Committee considered that it could be useful to have consultations between the Secretariat and Implementing Agencies in the calmer weeks immediately following a meeting. In particular, the results of the project approval process should be examined and noted for relevance to future projects.

(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/16/20, para. 71b, and Annex II).

(Supporting document: UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/16/13).

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