PRESS RELEASE – THE Government of Saint Lucia, through the Department of Sustainable Development’s (DSD) project called ‘Increasing Saint Lucia’s Capacity to Monitor MEA Implementation and Sustainable Development’, has reached a milestone through capacity building to meet obligations for Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs).
One of the key methods used to meet these obligations, is through the reporting mechanism set up by the MEAs that require comprehensive data and information.
The country now boasts of the development of an environmental reporting system to coordinate existing data and, importantly, to generate new information on the state of the environment. Through the online National Environmental Information System (NEIS), Civil and Private Stakeholders, including the public, can access environmental indicator sets and translate data into useful and actionable information. The online portal will serve as a supporting and foundational tool for reporting on MEAs.
Government agencies, the private sector, civil society, students and researchers will be direct beneficiaries, as the project includes capacity building, as well as public education and awareness initiatives. This is in an effort to better coordinate existing knowledge and generate new data that will facilitate informed decision-making.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean continue to support Saint Lucia through its Cross-Cutting Capacity Development portfolio.
The official launch of the National Environmental Information System is slated for August 7, 2018, at the Royal Saint Lucia Resort and Spa, where the Department of Sustainable Development will display the capabilities of the NEIS, and demonstrate its usefulness to support decision making for policy makers, negotiating teams for various MEAs, researchers and potential business investors to Saint Lucia.
Honourable Dr. Gale T. C. Rigobert, Minister for Sustainable Development, expressed her deep satisfaction with the progress being made on this initiative, having been at the forefront of a signing ceremony held in February 2018, where seventeen governmental and non-governmental institutions with data and information management mandates, became signatories to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on institutional arrangements for cooperation on environmental information management in Saint Lucia. (Department of Sustainable Development)