Information
  • Overall status: Completed
  • Published: 6 October 2020
Achievements 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 (if any)

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.

Next steps

N/a

Beneficaries & Actions

Who are the beneficaries?

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.

What specific actions have been taken to positively impact beneficaries?

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: 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.

Information
  • Overall status: On track
  • Published: 22 February 2019
Achievements at a glance

A methodology for addressing environmental issues affecting the Mediterranean marine environment has been developed. The set of indicators has been updated and refined to provide a snap shot of the achievement of existing initiatives for pollution prevention and control. H2020 indicators were mainstreamed for complementarity to existing indicators established by relevant initiatives and programmes. Project’s eligible countries agreed on the methodological factsheets defining the scope, geographical coverage, data availability and data collection methodology of the set of indicators.



The 2nd ENI SEIS II Regional Meeting on Indicators was held on 17-18 April 2018 in Athens, Greece. It discussed the current progress on H2020 indicators development and related assessment on wastewater, industrial emissions and solid waste including marine litter. The meeting reviewed the proposed indicators’ methodological specifications and reporting processes and agreed on the final list of H2020 indicators and their specifications.



The 1st ENI SEIS II Regional Workshop on Infrastructure and Data Management was held on 4-5 October 2018 in Rome, Italy. The regional workshop aimed to provide technical solutions to the countries developing the Regional Infrastructure based on SEIS principles. The objectives of this workshop were: (a) to propose training activities to national experts to collect and share data through a Spatial Data Infrastructure; and, (b) to discuss and agree upon the data dictionaries developed for H2020 indicators. The workshop agreed on the way forward regarding data and data dictionaries and how to organize capacity building activities to support the establishment of the network for the exchange of data protocols in order to populate the indicators.



The work is ongoing at the regional and national level to establish the sound infrastructure for sustainable data collections. Two data calls are initiated for collecting the data for populating the indicators. MEDPOL (UN Environment/MAP) initiated data calls under already established information infrastructure.



Challenges faced in implementation (if any)

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. There are some delays on implementation of national activities which requires enhanced coordination and management efforts.

Next steps

The efforts are focused on continuing support to countries to effectively generate and report data, including in collaboration with the European Environment Agency (EAA) and Plan Bleu (UN Environment/MAP) to populate indicators factsheets and prepare H2020 National Assessment chapters as stipulated in the project. Implementation of national activities is underway on the ground, with Israel, Morocco and Palestine receiving financial support and working with national experts on the ground. MEDPOL (UN Environment/MAP) will continue to support the countries with guidance material for implementing Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) and developing emission factors. MEDPOL will hold a regional thematic meeting and workshops underpinning the data collection. After distribution of the spreadsheets to the countries in mid-December 2018, data submission for populating H2020 indicators is expected to be finalized by second quarter of 2019. A workshop on industrial indicators including NBB/PRTR is already scheduled for March 2019; a workshop on wastewater indicators and waste indicators, including marine litter, are planned in late April 2019. Finalization of the SDI user guide in collaboration with INFO-RAC 9UN Environment/MAP) will be completed shortly.

Beneficaries & Actions

Who are the beneficaries?

Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine

What specific actions have been taken to positively impact beneficaries?

In collaboration with Plan Bleu, MEDPOL provided technical support to countries in the 2nd Workshop on Indicators. The 1st Workshop on Data and Infrastructure where the first training on the InfoMAPNode (SDI) was delivered. MEDPOL has provided financial support and training on regional emission factors to Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. Regional analysis of data flow management was prepared. The implementing Guide on PRTR, and the Manual for NBB Infosystem for better data management and submission were prepared and shared with the countries. The catalogue of metadata and the elaboration of regional gap analysis on infrastructure were completed. Elaboration of the spreadsheets for data collection based on Data Dictionaries was completed. A fully functional SDI is in place for data call. The document relative to the SDI Architecture with the countries was drafted and shared. Mapping of data flows was completed between NBB Infosystem and InfoMAPNode to ensure adherence to SEIS principles, i.e., report once and use for multiple purposes. All Data Dictionaries are completed and shared with the countries.