Summary

Convened by IOC of UNESCO Sub-Commission for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions-IOCARIBE with UN Agencies and Partners under the auspices of the Governments of Barbados and Colombia.

The Regional Kickoff Conference will mark the launch of the UN Ocean Decade in the Tropical Americas.  Join us to explore and consider the emerging transformative ocean science solutions resulting from the two-year co-design process.

16 December 2021: Review the proposed transformative ocean science solutions and assess the value, feasibility and priority of the potential Regional Ocean Decade Actions.

17 December 2021: Highlight emerging regional engagement in co-designing partnerships for Regional Ocean Decade Actions and Mobilize contributions and expressions of interest by UN and regional agencies, governments, industry and private sectors, and other stakeholder groups.

The Regional Kickoff Conference will represent the beginning of the region-wide efforts in a substantive development and implementation of Decade Actions. It aims to catalyze partnerships among various ocean stakeholder communities in the region, and catalyze co-design of transformative ocean science solutions to the Ocean Decade Challenges in order to achieve the Ocean Decade Outcomes and Sustainable Development Goals.

Background

As a result of the Ocean Decade planning process, a Regional Planning Group (WTA RPG) for the UN Ocean Decade was established in 2020 to advance and coordinate strategic partnerships and actions for Western Tropical Atlantic and the Eastern Tropical Pacific -The Tropical Americas Region engagement in the Ocean Decade. The WTA RPG established seven Working Groups to promote multi-disciplinary and inclusive co-design and implementation partnerships to achieve each of the six initial the Societal Outcomes and one specific for Capacity Development, recognizing the importance of the work of the Working Groups as the core of its strategy for advancing the Ocean Decade in the Tropical Americas Region. The seventh societal outcome, an Inspiring and Engaging Ocean, has been addressed as a cross cutting theme.

Seven online workshops were organized around the corresponding WTA Working Groups (conducted July – October 2021). The Workshops aimed to review knowledge gaps, barriers, identify priority areas and needs in capacity development, and catalyze a co-design process to find transformative ocean science solutions and develop potential Regional Ocean Decade Actions (programmes / projects / activities / contributions) as part of the global collective effort under the Ocean Decade.

To register for the On-Line Event, Please Register here:

http://iocaribe.ioc-unesco.org/rkoc/regrkoc