Progress report for
Implementation of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) principles and practices in the ENP South region - ENI SEIS II South Support Mechanism
Achievement at a glance
The EU-funded project (EC-DG NEAR, 4.2 Mio EUR, 2016-2020) European Neighbourhood Instrument - Shared Environmental Information System II (ENI SEIS II South Support Mechanism) was jointly implemented by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP). At the initiation of the project, each partner country (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia) developed Shared Environmental Information Systems (SEIS) National Work Plans. Existing national institutional arrangements, infrastructures and information services were assessed to further support the development of and streamline SEIS implementation in the partner countries. The set of National Action Plans (NAP) indicators in three thematic areas, i.e., water, industrial pollution and waste including marine litter, have been developed to support regular review of progress towards a cleaner Mediterranean. Small scale funding was provided to support partner countries to collect and validate quality assured data and submit the data via updated regional infrastructure. National capacities have been enhanced by developing a Pollution Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) Legal Template for selected countries to facilitate the transition to sound data management, especially for industrial facilities. Regional capacity has been developed on data collection by developing National Baseline Budget/Pollution Release and Transfer Register (NBB/PRTR) Implementation Guidelines, aiming to improve the capacity of industrial installations operators to report best available data to competent national authorities. The efficiency of existing data flows was improved, by enhancing synergies with the UNEP/MAP information system (Info-MAP platform), and by the creation of new data flows. Two Data Calls were launched to collect significant amount of data for populating the Indicators. Data flow and reporting from partner countries is monitored via a dedicated dashboard. Production of two reports: EEA Report No 8/2020 Technical assessment of progress towards a cleaner Mediterranean and EEA Report No 7/2020 Towards a cleaner Mediterranean: a decade of progress.Challenges faced in implementation
For some countries, barriers exist due to the political environment and lack of national institutional or technical capacity, especially the compatibility of the national infrastructure with regional infrastructure. In countries where conflicts still continue, such as Libya, project implementation was obstructed. In addition, key challenges and difficulties that countries are facing are related to monitoring processes and data collection, both of which account for more than 65% of the total difficulties reported by the countries in industrial emissions theme. This stems from lack of proper data management including limited and fragmentated data collection, lack of quality assurance and quality control procedures, and poor practices for data validation process and reporting. These obstacles were mainly due to lack of capacity, lack of infrastructure and high turnover of the qualified staff in some countries. Therefore, tremendous support was given to bridge the above-mentioned gaps, such support was given not only via national experts but also via regional experts to facilitate the delivering the projects outputs. Finally, as acknowledged by the assessment, a huge investment is urgently needed to improve data and information coverage and quality, and related human capacities. Technical and financial support is an important prerequisite to establish and fortify sustainability of production of knowledge for policymakers in the region. Continuous support on this domain will also ensure the continuity of the developed infrastructure and capacity under the project.Beneficiaries
The project funded by EC-DG NEAR was jointly implemented with the European Environment Agency under a contribution agreement. UNEP/MAP led thematic activities on industrial emissions, waste and marine litter and the bilateral support to partner countries and co-led the regional infrastructure development and data management. The main beneficiaries of the project were the Southern Mediterranean Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention namely Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Palestine (Observer Status), Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan (the latter is not a Party to the Barcelona Convention). The main counterparts of the projects activities at national level were high-level officials appointed by the ministry responsible for the environment and the national statistical office. In addition, through its contributions to developing new tools, guidelines, methods and promoting good practices, the project had an impact on decision making with key outcomes such as Synthesis Report and the H2020 Mediterranean Indicator Based Technical Report. Ultimately, through knowledge-based decision-making processes, the entire population in the Mediterranean region will benefit from the outcomes of the project.
Actions
Specific actions at national level under this project included:National assistants were hired at national level to facilitate the implementation of the project.
Morocco: With the support of the project, Morocco has developed an impressive tool to display and communicate on H2020 indicators (including through maps: http://196.70.254.211:70/seis-ii-sud/). The indicator data are being populated in the system, and a full national assessment published.
Israel: Development of municipal solid waste database, development of hazardous waste information system as part of the Ministry of Industry information portal (online since July 2019), Stakeholders workshops on marine litter and waste prevention (December 2018), full assessment of H2020, review of progress with SEIS implementation.
Jordan: production of H2020 indicators factsheets, review of progress with SEIS implementation
Libya: production of H2020 indicators factsheets
Palestine: National Environmental information system developed, with data sharing in place and increasing, progressively, integrating existing information systems. Production of H2020 indicators factsheets.
Tunisia: SEIS national team established with reinforced national collaboration, enhanced awareness and communication on monitoring, reporting and assessment, targeted studies on PRTR, hazardous waste and links Heath and Environment, full assessment of H2020 at national level, review of progress with SEIS implementation.
Providing support to beneficiaries, through effective technical assistance, for implementation of the project activities at national level: Preparation of National Assessment/gap analysis report by each project country; Preparation of PRTR legislation template in selected countries; Updating of regional PRTR guidelines including emission factors and development of methodological guidelines for emission factors to be used for industrial emission indicators; Supporting national authorities with regional training workshops; Technical assistance missions; Developing Data Dictionaries for NAP Indicators on industrial emissions, Waste and Marine litter.