1) TOPS 2005 The Ocean Policy Summit
October 10-14, 2005, Lisbon, Portugal
2) Third Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands
January 23-28, 2006, UNESCO, Paris, France
The Global Ocean Forum organized the Ocean Donors Roundtable to bring together public and private donors on oceans to: 1) share information on existing funding programs on oceans, 2) consider global needs for funding for ocean conservation and management efforts, 3) discuss alternatives for filling gaps in global oceans funding, 4) possibly devise approaches for public-private funding for global ocean priorities.
The first meeting of the Ocean Donors Roundtable was held on October 10, 2005 in Lisbon, Portugal, as a parallel event of TOPS 2005 The Ocean Policy Summit. The meeting involved a dialogue between 17 public and private donors. The group highlighted that country requirements have to be articulated through specific requests to donors and that resources need to be available for implementation. The group also identified some emerging conclusions on this issue, including that oceans are a priority and that this message needs to be communicated to policy makers and funding agencies. Roundtable participants noted that a strategy is needed to engage the media, public, and think tanks, and underscored the need to link funding with other initiatives addressing poverty, economic growth, and business promotion. In the ensuing discussion, participants discussed the need for: developing countries to seek donors’ assistance and place oceans on their development agenda; private partnerships to become the foundation for funding large-scale projects; project proposals that meet local and government priorities; clarity on how to prioritize oceans related funding; and an examination of the criteria applied in helping protect marine resources, especially in SIDS.
The Oceans Donors Roundtable held a meeting on January 23, 2006, UNESCO, Paris. Among a number of topics discussed to address the scaling up of funding for ocean issues, the Group discussed a possible on-going role for such a group and its possible comparative advantage as the only meeting of donors, from both the public and private sector, directed at oceans, coasts and SIDS. It was recognized that although donor agencies may have innovative approaches to financing, they are not agenda setters, but responsive to the global agenda which has been set and to which governments are committed (e.g., Millennium, Development Goals, WSSD Plan of Implementation), and that donors should bear this agenda in mind.
At the 2008 4th Global Oceans Conference in Hanoi, a review of the results of the Working Groups showed that many emphasized the need for long-term capacity development as the basis for forward movement in the topic area. The Capacity Development Policy Brief recommended the holding of a Donors Conference on Capacity Development to develop a public/private strategy on long-term capacity development in ocean and coastal management.
In the next phase, the Global Ocean Forum will work to organize the Donors Conference on Capacity Development to develop future joint strategies, especially around the issue of ocean leadership awareness and vision among high level decision-makers.
