Officers of the Conservation and Environmental Protection Authority (CEPA) of PNG received capacity development on the use of the national environmental data portal, an on-line tool built to address the on-going challenge of compiling high-quality, and up to date data on the environment including a place to store data.
The training on the use of the national portal was conducted by the SPREP Inform project team, from 26-30 November, 2018, at CEPA headquarters. The PNG environmental data portal was first introduced back in May this year.
Information stored in the national portal is used to facilitate data management and enhance PNG’s reporting capacity to the various multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) including key national, regional and international commitments. Further developments and enhancement of the national data portal will improve access to national datasets and indicators on the environment.
The new look national portal with a PNG- themed front end was developed under the leadership of CEPA with technical support and capacity building provided by the SPREP Inform project.
One of the participants attending the capacity training, Gretel Orake of UNDP Papua New Guinea country office said, “ the portal has the potential to transform the way PNG looks at environmental data, the way of the future is through ICT for both transparency and progress and this open data portal provides a way to demonstrate PNGs commitment to open government.”. .
The work to strengthen and enhance PNG’s national portal is supported through a partnership agreement between SPREP and UNDP’s Enhancing Capacity to Develop Global and Regional Environmental Project in the Pacific (CCCD).
“We are pleased to be able to help our Pacific islands address their challenges in environmental data management, in data collection and analysis, and supporting the development of national policy frameworks to improve data management and data sharing amongst government agencies, this contributes directly to PNG’s commitment to the Open Government Partnership and increasing transparency, inclusiveness, responsive government and accountability” said Mr Paul Anderson, Inform Project Manager.
SPREP’s Environment Monitoring and Governance Programme will continue to work with CEPA to build long term skills and sustainability in environmental data management.
The Inform project will complement and strengthen the development of key national environment documents, mainly the State of Environment (SoE) Report and the National Environmental Management Strategy (NEMS). Development of these documents rely on easy access to a centralised depository of environment data and information which is a primary functions of the national portal.
The ACPMEA programme leveraged new funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to set up the Inform project, which is implemented by UN Environment and executed through SPREP’s Environmental Monitoring and Governance Programme.
The four-year regional Inform project (2017-2021) is establishing national portals in14 Pacific island countries of the 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.
For more information on the Inform Project, contact Mr. Paul Anderson, Inform Project Manager on email: [email protected].
To learn more about the Inform project, please visit http://www.sprep.org/inform/home
