Registration of contributions to the work on capacity-building under IPBES: Submission #38

Brief description of contribution The National Ecosystem Assessment Initiative (NEA Initiative) at UNEP-WCMC currently supports 14 countries conducting and scoping for national ecosystem assessments. UNEP-WCMC delivers capacity building activities tailored to the needs of each of our partner countries and facilitates regional and global knowledge sharing. All capacity building materials developed as part of the Initiative are made freely available on the NEA Initiative website.
The capacity building activities mentioned include:
1. One-to-one country support tailored to each country partner on technical and methodological aspects of the assessment process, as well as strengthening the science-policy-practitioner dialogue.
2. Webinars, in-person and online workshops relating to specific stages of the assessment process (e.g. scoping stage, using assessment findings, roles and responsibilities) and on specific technical topics (e.g. scenarios, multiple-evidence based approach, economic valuation).
3. Guidance documents which aim to support countries to tailor the IPBES assessment process to specific national contexts, strengthen the science-policy-practitioner dialogue and enhance the use of national ecosystem assessments to support decision-making, including national level implementation of multi-lateral environmental agreements .
4. Capturing and synthesizing lessons learned on conducting sub-global ecosystem assessments, and supporting networking opportunities for practitioners involved in such assessments across the world.

The NEA Initiative will deliver further capacity building activities . This year, we have a global capacity building workshop planned and we will continue to organise webinars and develop further capacity building resources.