Subject: ENRIN-Africa: Environment and Natural Resources Info... Greetings Colleagues, For your reference please see Number 4 in the Series of Briefing Notes which explain our activities within UNEPs Division of Environmental Information and Assessment. Environmental Information Networking (EIN) on ENRIN-Africa. _____________________________________________________________ Briefing Note: Feb 14 1997 ENRIN - Environment and Natural Resources Information Networking - Africa Region Focus: UNEP's ENRIN Programme evolved to address the following AGENDA 21 issues (Chapter 40): The accessibility of relevant and appropriate environment and natural resources information to decision making processes at national and regional levels; The capacity of existing national and regional institutions to manage environment and natural resources information and improve delivery to decision making processes. Objectives: At the National level - Establish or enhance operational environment and natural resources information systems (EIS) and networks (EIN) which fully support the information requirements of strategic planning frameworks, assessment and reporting, for national environment management action plans and natural resource use. Five national networks are currently being developed (Uganda, Ghana, Zambia Eritrea and Tanzania) and proposals to establish or enhance two more (Madagascar and Botswana) are currently under development. At the Sub-regional level - Establish or enhance networks which link national environment and natural resources databases to established sub-regional organisations and secretariats. This will provide information to support action plans initiated to deal with issues related to shared resources (e.g. Regional Seas and River Basin Action Plans). Currently networks are under development in four sub-regions: the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), and planned for the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC). At the Regional level - Establish or enhance networks which link sub-regional and national environment and natural resources information systems and the specialized databases of the UN agencies and UNEP. This will facilitate regional assessments, within a global framework, of major environmental issues, environmental reporting, and will enable analysis of data for detecting emerging issues of mobilizing responses to environmental change. Strategy and Approach: The ENRIN approach to capacity-building has four steps, each carried out with national or regional partner institutions: National or regional consultations to evaluate requirements and develop strategies to address priority environment assessment, reporting, and/or associated data management issues; Formulation of investment projects to enhance or develop the necessary institutional skills, technology and staff capacities together with representatives from participating institutions; Joint efforts to secure funding for implementation, when possible with seed funding from UNEP's Environment Fund used to leverage funds from multi and bilateral donors; Finally, provision of long-term technical backstopping assistance. For more information please contact: Mr. Kagumhao Kakuyo Regional Coordinator ENRIN-Africa Division of Environmental Information and Assessment UNEP, P.O. Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: (254-2) 623513 or 624234 Fax: (254-2) 623943 or 623944 E-mail: bob.kakuyo@unep.org or eainfo@unep.org Thank you. Beth Ingraham (Ms.) ingrahab@unep.org or infotinf@unep.org Information Officer INFOTERRA/PAC, UNEP P.O. Box 47074, Nairobi INFOTERRA/PAC Kenya The Global Environmental Tel:(254-2) 624299; Information Exchange Fax: (254-2)624269 or 226949 Network - message sent by infoterra@cedar.univie.ac.at to signoff from the list, send an email to majordomo@cedar.univie.ac.at the message body should read signoff infoterra your@email.address -