At the 10th Conference of Parties to the Nairobi Convention, Contracting Parties to the Secretariat and Partners to develop an Information Management Strategy (IMS) for the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, compliant with COP Decision 10.5. To this end, the Nairobi Convention is collaborating with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) through the “Western Indian Ocean Governance Initiative” (WIOGI) to develop the IMS. In addition, the Collective Leadership Institute (CLI) and the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung, ZMT) have partnered to implement the decision.
Since April 2022, WIOGI has steadily advanced towards developing and launching the Information Management Strategy for the Western Indian Ocean region. This process has entailed training a multistakeholder working group (MSWG) from the Western Indian Ocean to co-develop the IMS. At the same time, the Collective Leadership Institute (CLI) and the Leibniz Centre for Marine Tropical Research (ZMT) continue to provide technical assistance to the MSWG.
The above timeline depicts faithful adherence by MSWG in codeveloping the Information Management Strategy. Technical dialogues in the first half of the year 2023, including an intense drafting session and CLI workshop in Zanzibar in May 2023, have assisted the IMS MSWG to write the content of the IMS, which is on target to be finalized before the end of the year. The draft strategy has now entered the validation phase.
The Nairobi Convention Secretariat and GIZ would like to express their gratitude for the dedication and professionalism of the Information Management Multistakeholder Working Group members who have participated in this drafting process. Their continued enthusiasm toward sustainable ocean governance in the Western Indian Ocean has contributed to the advancement of this process.
