Key Achievements todate

• • Official starting date was August 2008; actual date of Project’s commencement was November 2009; the first Project Manager was recruited in November 2009; both Board and Advisory Committees were established and their ToRs were approved from April 2010- August 2010; first Advisory Committee meeting was on April 6th, 2010 and the Inception Workshop was held on April 13th, 2010;
  • Line ministries and agencies with mandates related to the three Rio Conventions were identified from Jan-Dec 2010; a webpage in Arabic for the project was established on Ministry of Environment’s (MoEnv) official website in August 2010; the research institutions that are/were involved in the three Rio Conventions were identified and a profile of their activities as related to three Rio Conventions was prepared from Jan-Dec 2010; a draft 2011 work plan was prepared (December 2010-January 2011)
  • A new Project Manager was hired (January, 2011); a concrete comprehensive workplan for 2011 was prepared for the project in Jan 2011, which marked putting a sound and fruitful implementation of the project hereafter after some delays in fulfilling targeted achievements;  
  • A draft Inception Report was released including all amendments of base line, indicators, and annual work plan (AWP) for 2010-2012 in July 2010 and approved fully in March 2011;
  • The three Rio Conventions themes (biodiversity, desertification and climate change) were added to the National Research Priorities Project of Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR) for the period 2010-2020  from April-August 2010;
  • The National Committee on Biodiversity was established and held its first meeting (January 31st, 2011). The National Committee on Combating Desertification was re-established (March 3rd, 2011). The National Committee on Climate Change was re-established (March  2011- June 2011); the membership of such committees were amended with focus on adding “left behind” organizations with emphasis on research and academic institutions; 
  • During (March-July, 2011) and under the first outcome “Sustainable and effective collaboration mechanisms between policy making and research related to the GE conventions are established “, the CB-2 Project conducted “A Study on Potential Institutional Mechanism for Future Collaboration between Policy and Research Institutions in Relation to Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, CBD and UNCCD)”. The study defined “research” and “policy” and the linkages between them clearly.  It also covered three outputs: Output 1 was concerned with the preparation of a research map on the three Rio Conventions in Jordan. Under this output, the study team identified research institutions and researchers engaged in research activities relevant to the three conventions and research projects and activities of relevance to the themes addressed by these conventions.  An electronic database (e-map) was developed for the collected data and information to provide a “one-stop” information source on the three Rio Conventions in Jordan which might be needed by both policy making institutions and research institutions. The focus of Output 2 was to assess the existing types of collaboration and identify opportunities and potentials for future collaboration in addition to suggesting potential institutional mechanisms to strengthen connectivity between policy institutions involved in GE with research institutions. An in-depth analysis of the present financial flows for research under Rio Conventions was performed as part of this output as well and covered both internal and external funding sources and opportunities in addition to discussing some of innovative sources such as CDM and Dept Swap programs. Output 3 was about preparing a detailed and comprehensive recommendation on the design structure of a virtual platform for Rio Conventions-related information collection, processing, analysis and dissemination;
  • The Project is conducting the second phase of its first study entitled “Potential Institutional Mechanism for Future Collaboration between Ministry of Environment and Line Ministries with Research Institutions in Relation to the Three Rio Conventions”. The second phase is entitled “Design and Program the Virtual Platform for Rio Conventions-related Information Collection, Processing, Analysis and Dissemination” to conclude the third output of the said study entitled “Provide Recommendation on the Design Structure of the Virtual Platform for Information Collection, Processing, Analysis and Dissemination” and is intended to put in place the necessary structures, procedures, and tools to collect, assemble, analyze and manage dissemination of information to support the connectivity between the research and policy making for the management of the implementation process of the obligations and provisions of Rio Conventions in Jordan as well as to provide this information to various stakeholders in a timely and comprehensive way. The virtual platform will be designed as the core block in the blueprint for a national Environmental Information System for Jordan, JEIS, a vision envisaged by the CB-2 Project aiming at integrating all scattered existing and establish the infrastructure for planned environmental information systems and initiatives. A prototype model of the Virtual Platform/JEIS was demonstrated in a special workshop on  Wednesday July 18th 2012 and the Project is providing intensive and diverse training to MoEnv’s IT staff on database and information systems management capacity;
  • A “Joint Meeting for the three National Committees of Rio Conventions in Jordan to Develop Action Plans, Identify Training Needs and Brainstorm Synergy Ideas” was held at Al Hussein Youth City (7th of April 2011) and a “Two_by_Three_ Synergy Committee” was established per a recommendation of the workshop and held its first meeting on the 5th of May 2011;
  • The project established three thematic research groups (focus research groups under each Rio Convention theme) (July 2011) named accordingly” the Climate Change Research Group; the Biodiversity Research Group; and Combating Desertification Research Group. Each group aims at serving as a scientific and research arm to its mother Rio National Committee. The project assisted the groups to prepare their mandates and action plans (Jan- Feb 2012); the Groups now participate in any Rio Conventions-related national policy/strategy development to integrate research findings in such legal documents. By doing this, the main objectives of the project are fulfilled in a sustatiable an defective ways; 
  • The Project conducted (October 2011-March 2012) under the second outcome “Global environmental issues and provisions of the three Rio Conventions are integrated in policies and laws based on research” a study entitled “Developing Policy-Oriented Research Guidelines, Procedures and Tools to Support Implementing Rio Conventions in Jordan”. The study identified the stakeholder’s roles and responsibilities, reviewed Jordan’s obligation’s to comply with Rio Conventions and related Protocols, reviewed Rio Conventions related policies and strategies in Jordan, studied the current and proposed research initiatives related to Rio Conventions and related Protocols, identified all potential research topics and prioritized them involving senior policy makers, developed research guidelines, procedures and tools, identified the gaps between the ongoing research and the policy-oriented research needs for implementing Rio Conventions and finally identified potential funding sources to promote and conduct policy-oriented research; the findings are in the process of printing and dissemination to targeted institutions;
  • The 2012 AWP and budget were prepared (Jan 2012);
  • The project held a two-day (25-26/2/2012) intensive training workshop on “Understanding the Science of Environmental Governance and Building Capacity of Skills of Development of Environmental Policies and Strategies Related to Implementation of Rio Conventions in Jordan and Integration of Conventions’ Provisions into National Development Planning”. The Project’s stakeholders from the three Rio National Committees and the three Thematic Research Groups attended the workshop in addition to heads of Policy and Strategy Directorates at the involved line ministries;
  • The Project held its third Board Meeting on the 6th of March 2012;
  • The Project systematically institutionalized a mechanism to assisting the stakeholders in developing/updating their strategies and developing new policies/strategies through involving researchers in the policy making process in away aiming at anchor this practice which is the main objective of the CB-2 Project; 
  • The results of the Project’s study “Developing Policy-Oriented Research Priorities, Guidelines, Procedures, and Tools to Support Implementing Rio Conventions in Jordan” were presented to the members of the three Rio thematic research groups in their second joint meeting on the 12th of April 2012 to obtain needed insight and feedback to finalize the guidelines, the findings are in the process of finalizing editing, printing and disseminating to targeted institutions;
  • Feedback on the best policy-oriented research financial supporting framework/mechanism proposed by the Project to promote policy oriented research in the country was obtained from the advisory committee. Recommendations focused on that the Ministry of Environment should send the needed environmental research priorities annually to the Research Support Fund so to allocate some funds for research on these topics;
  • All of the needed hardware for establishing the virtual platform’s (and JEIS) infrastructure was delivered.  The virtual platform was designed temporarily at servers of Balqa Applied University. The capacity of the IT department staff is being raised through a technical training on system management and maintenance. The final layout of the platform will presented to the project stakeholders for feedback;
  • The national committee for biodiversity was declared nationally and promoted through a media conference and a date for celebrating the World Biodiversity Day was announced;
  • The national Biodiversity priorities were identified by the national committee for biodiversity supported by the project;
  • On ground desertification projects were visited by the National Committee on Combating Desertification for knowledge exchange purposes;
  • The Project provided technical assistance for the preparation of the strategy of adaptation of biodiversity to climate change in Jordan lead by RSCN through engaging the three thematic research groups of Rio conventions in the stakeholders’ consultation process;
  • The data needed for the fulfillment of the project indicators were gathered and the reports were submitted; 
  • The Project brought the hottest environmental issues including themes of Rio Conventions to the table for national discussion at the 6th Jordanian Environmental Conference;
  • The awareness of the UNDP staff on RIO+ 20 was raised by the Project Manager;
  • The progress of the project was reported to the stakeholders through an informative e-newsletter;
  • The Project’s intensive work on the development of a national climate change policy for Jordan for the first time in history  continued, ToRs for such legacy document were developed and passed through six revision cycles, procurement notices seeking international climate change policy advisor consultant and a national support consultant to make up the team to develop the policy were released and needed funds were sought and allocated; the consultancy teams was recruited in November 2012, inception workshop took place in the same month and first round of focus group meetings to involve national sectoral stakeholders in policy making took place in the same month as well, nine focus groups meetings involving adaptation sectors (Water, Health, Agriculture/Biodiversity/Food Security;  Vulnerable Groups/the Poor/Youth/Gender) and mitigation/investment sectors (Energy/Transport; Waste; Green Economy and the Private Sector) as well as Policy Mandate; Objectives, Legal Framework & Institutional Arrangements focus group meeting were held involving representative from the government institutions, ministries as well as NGOs and research institutions and universities let alone donor representatives and the private sector. In the second round of focus groups meeting took place in Jan 2013, the different sectoral groups above were mixed together in three cross-cutting focus groups: adaptation, mitigations and Policy Mandate; Objectives, Legal Framework & Institutional Arrangements; the Climate Policy of Jordan is expected to be fully developed in Feb 2013 and be presented to Cabinet for endorsement hereafter.