1. The Aarhus clearinghouse progress report & the integration of capacity building November 2005

3. Clearinghouse’s Renewed Mandate DECISION II/3 On Electronic Information Tools and the Clearing-house Mechanism adopted in Almaty at Second Meeting of the Parties (May 2005) “Welcoming … the establishment of a clearing- house mechanism and the launch of the UNECE Aarhus Clearinghouse for Environmental Democracy”

4. In Almaty, the Meeting of the Parties… 2.Invites Parties, Signatories and other interested States to develop a national node of the clearing-house mechanism with legal and practical information on issues related to the Convention at national level, linked to the UNECE Aarhus Clearinghouse for Environmental Democracy, and invites other stakeholders to submit relevant information to the clearing house; …

5. 3. Decides to extend the mandate of the Task Force on Electronic Information Tools with the following programme of work:... (d) Maintenance and further development of the clearing-house mechanism, including development of guidance materials and a programme of training workshops in support of capacity building for the national nodes of the clearing house while avoiding duplication of work.

6. “ 20 ” Aarhus CH national nodes have so far been designated

7. The Resource Directory holds 730 separate entries. Each entry is ‘tagged’ with one or more thematic attribute: Access to Information 500 Public participation 330 Electronic Tools 225 Access to Justice 174 PRTRs 165 Convention Compliance 112 Strategic Decision-making 109 GMOs 82

8. Resources entries by activity: ResearchResearch 366 Research LegislationLegislation 297 Legislation 297 Legislation ProjectsProjects 266 Projects 266 Projects PolicyPolicy 195 Policy 195 Policy ProceduresProcedures 184 Procedures 184 Procedures

9. Source of entries by organizational type: NGOs 359 NGOs 359 Intergovernmental organizations 223 Intergovernmental organizations 223 Government 181 Government 181 Academia 72 Academia 72

10. Leaders’ entries among Parties and Signatories All sources United Kingdom +— 63 European Commission +— 30 Kyrgyzstan +— 19 Armenia, Georgia +— 17 Kazakhstan +/— 16 Azerbaijan +— 14 Germany +— 11 Belarus +, Ireland +, Ukraine — 10 * Bulgaria +, Italy + — 9 * Republic of Moldova +, Switzerland — 8 * Norway, Tajikistan + — 7 * Romania, Spain, FYR Macedonia — 6 *___________ * each + designated Aarhus website / not operational

11. Visits 2005 to date

13. Next Steps underway… Ongoing outreach with resource providers Ongoing outreach with resource providers Fresh News features Fresh News features National node capacity building National node capacity building Content management guidance Content management guidance Help page (for users) Help page (for users) Upgrade web calendar of principle 10 Upgrade web calendar of principle 10 related events related events Clearinghouse information exchange Clearinghouse information exchange Integration of capacity building information Integration of capacity building information

14. Capacity building for implementation of the Aarhus Convention Aim: to coordinate capacity building activities How: by sharing information and by cooperation Challenge: timely and efficient sharing of information on past, on-going and future capacity building activities A solution: develop a framework to share capacity building information, i.e. through the Aarhus Convention Clearing House. Other solutions?

15. Framework for integrating capacity building into the Clearinghouse Access to Information Public Participation Access to Justice PRTR GMO Electronic tools Strategic Decision-making Convention Compliance Query Capacity Building: Info and training materials Projects Events Experts Needs Government NGOs IGO Academia Regions Sub-regions Countries Legislation Policy Procedures Research Result output Build a Query Processing the query

16. Capacity building needs identified through reporting and other sources Reporting, info sources (e.g. NIRs, TAI, UNITAR) Activities for building capacity Aarhus Convention implementation Capacity building needs identification Assessment of the implementation

19. Further developments Identify and agree on the way/mechanism for the partners to provide information. Develop a user-friendly uploading mechanism, a database and a GUI integrating the capacity building components into the Clearinghouse. Provide access (login and username) to the partners to enable the submission of available information on capacity building.

20. Further developments Database Modified GUI Specific query Submission mechanism Specific output Capacity Building Partners National Nodes Users

21. Further developments UNEP Milieukontact Oost Europa UNITAR WRI/TAI/ PP10 EC National nodes OSCE WB ECO-Forum REC/CEE CAREC