Progress report for
International Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development - The Ocean we want for the Future we need
Achievement at a glance
Building on the efforts of IOC Member States and the IOC Secretariat, the UN General Assembly proclaimed in December 2017 the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development from 2021 to 2030. The period 2018–2020 will focus on the preparation of the Implementation Plan for the Decade, which will encompass both a Science Plan as well as an Engagement Plan. The IOC was tasked by UNGA at its 72nd session with the preparation of the Implementation Plan in “consultation with Member States, specialized agencies, funds, programmes and bodies of the United Nations, as well as other intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and relevant stakeholders.”. The strategic approach to the Decade will be transformative. The ocean science community should be willing to think beyond “business as usual” and to aspire for real change, whether in relation to the depth of knowledge related to the ocean, or in the way cooperation and partnerships are leveraged. The IOC developed the first draft ‘Roadmap’ document which provides an initial guide to develop an Implementation Plan for the Decade. It also proposed governance and structural arrangements in the form of a Planning Group to be established by the IOC Executive Council at its 51st session. The roadmap was circulated to IOC Member States in February 2018 and widely disseminated to partners of the Commission. In this context, IOC also invited relevant UN bodies with a focus on ocean to contribute to the development of the implementation plan. IOC hosted the meeting of UN-Oceans, the UN inter- agency mechanism on ocean affairs, at UNESCO Headquarters on 26–28 March 2018 to discuss contributions to the Decade. The Planning Group foreseen in the Roadmap, once formally established by IOC, will take over the overall responsibility of preparing the Implementation Plan.<br>
Challenges faced in implementation
A resource mobilisation strategy is being developed in order to ensure that the Decade coordination work and activity development is properly resourced.Beneficiaries
The Decade directly responds to a number of global policy-enabling frameworks that have been endorsed by UN Member States over the last 4 years, namely the 2030 Agenda, but also the Sendai Framework for Risk Reduction (2015), the SAMOA Pathway for SIDS (2014), the UNFCCC Paris Agreement (2015), together with previous intergovernmental agreements. All these frameworks have in common the recognition of ocean scientific knowledge as a key element required to inform the effective formulation of national policies in field of sustainable development and disaster risk reduction.
<br>Therefore the scientific community, the national agencies with a mandate for ocean management, risk disaster reduction, regional organisations operating at ocean basins scale, UN bodies with a requirement for scientific information to achieve their mandate, civil society organisation engaged in protection, conservation and awareness raising of ocean issues, academic organisation focusing on capacity development, business organisation that require scientific information to operate in sustainable way, as well as providers of ocean technology (R&D), will all benefit from the Decade.