A process for identifying national solutions to challenges faced in developing countries in reporting to environmental conventions: Insight from the facilitating national reporting to the rio conventions project

Almost all countries in the world are party to the Rio Conventions. This entails a number of responsibilities, including reporting periodically on aspects of environmental health and national implementation of the convention. These reports can cover hundreds of pages, so completing reports is often a significant undertaking. Since countries can be party to numerous Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), they may have several such reports to prepare at any one time, often using similar information. This article shares insights from a project that piloted nationally-driven, integrated approaches to reporting to the Rio Conventions and developed flexible methods for enhancing the national reporting process, in a way that is relevant for a particular country. The project found that a focus on collaborative institutional arrangements and building capacity as a nation, rather than as a series of departments, could enhance this reporting process. These lessons can inform decisions of United Nations agencies, MEA secretariats, Country Parties to these MEAs and the wider sustainability community to reduce the reporting burden and increase the synergistic implementation of environmental conventions.