Eurasia and Pacific Regional Workshop launched in Indonesia

With representatives over 13 countries, the Second Eurasia Pacific Regional Workshop gathered representatives from Georgia to Fiji in order to discuss the BIOFIN advances and challenges in the region.

The implementation of the different components of BIOFIN at a national level generates a wealth of knowledge that is periodically incorporated to the evolving BIOFIN methodology by the national, regional and global teams. Through this adaptive management approach, one of the major objectives of the 2nd BIOFIN Regional Workshop in Eurasia and the Pacific was to move forward with the institutionalization of the valuable lessons that this initiative generates.

During the 3-day event, participants had a unique opportunity to share lessons on the different components of BIOFIN. The workshop's objectives included: 

• Assess progress towards attaining overall outcomes / impacts of BIOFIN and address implementation issues.
• Discuss integration of BIOFIN with related initiatives including SDGs, Climate, PEI.
• Enable BIOFIN countries to develop communications strategies and determine knowledge management platforms. 
• Present to the new participating countries and new members of the national teams BIOFIN’s philosophy and its community.
• Present the updated BIOFIN methodology and provide a platform for discussing it.
• Train countries in the components of the updated BIOFIN methodology that have not yet been applied at national level.
• Discuss strategies and interventions on how BIOFIN can ensure that the desired transformational outcomes are attained either through mainstreaming activities, communications, and establishment of institutional frameworks.
• Discuss the results and experiences of the national teams implementing BIOFIN’s components.
• Discuss and clarify how BIOFIN can contribute to a better integration of biodiversity and ecosystem services into sectorial development strategies and investment policies at both national and sectorial levels; and respond to the priorities of the Ministries of Finance and Economy (Treasury)/Planning.
• Define knowledge management needs to facilitate implementation across all BIOFIN countries in the region.

The workshop brought together over 70 participants including delegations of the 13 countries of Eurasia, Southern Asia and the Pacific region that are part of BIOFIN (Bhutan, Fiji, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam).  These delegations were composed of representatives of the Ministries of Environment; Ministries of Finance, Economy and/or Planning; and the respective UNDP country offices and national BIOFIN teams. UNDP participants include representatives of the Regional Center in Bangkok and relevant representatives of intergovernmental donor organizations.