20 September, Apia, Samoa – A new resource for short, quick pops of information has been developed by the Inform Project to help those working in the Pacific enhance their speeches, media interviews, soundbites, presentations and general message-sharing on Pacific islands environmental data.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), through the Inform Project, has helped 14 Pacific islands develop their own National Data Portals in an effort to improve the Pacific region’s environmental data management and collection, and increase accessibility for all stakeholders.
The Pacific islands face many challenges when it comes to information management, such as the need for standard procedures, collecting and storing of data, including the limited accessibility of data.
Environmental data, which is fundamental to the sustainable development of Pacific island economies and the resilience and adaptation of Pacific communities to impacts of climate change and other environmental threats, is faced with the same challenges.
The Inform Project aims to address these limitations and challenges in order to help Pacific island governments and communities ‘strengthen governance and decision making through addressing gaps in environmental data across the Pacific region.’
The new resource, which is called the Inform Beats, is a simple and easy to use guide to assist practitioners and decision-makers with key messages and information on environmental data which they can include in their speeches, presentations and other important engagements.
“There is a need for historical and current evidence of the status and trends of various environmental resources and drivers of environmental change,” said Mr Paul Anderson, Inform Project Manager. “The Inform Project aims to address many of these issues facing the Pacific region, and now we are looking to help make data and information more easily accessible for our Pacific community working in the environmental field.
“It is our goal to ensure that those who need this information for national and international reporting and planning can access not only this resource but also our regional and national data portals to allow for informed decision making.”
The Inform Project began in 2017 and is being carried out over four years until 2021. Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by UN Environment and executed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Inform Project works across 14 Pacific islands: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The Inform Beats are now available online and can be downloaded here: https://pacific-data.sprep.org/dataset/inform-beats
To learn more about the Inform Project and to access the regional portal visit https://pacific-data.sprep.org or contact Mr Paul Anderson at [email protected]