NOWPAP Restructures its Regional Coordinating Unit

During the second NOWPAP Extraordinary Intergovernmental Meeting (2nd EO IGM) held on 1-2 April 2015 in Seoul, RO Korea, NOWPAP member states decided to downgrade two posts in the NOWPAP Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU) following an earlier decision to reduce the number of staff members in RCU from six to four, as agreed at the 1st EO IGM in April 2014.  The restructured RCU will have a Coordinator at the P5 level with a Programme Assistant at G6 level in RCU Toyama office and a Programme Officer at P3 level with a Team Assistant at G4 level in RCU Busan office.  Some functions affected by the restructuring will be covered by support from UNEP Headquarters or by consultants using NOWPAP funds in the future. Recruitment of new RCU staff members will be initiated later this year and is expected to be completed by February 2016.

NOWPAP adopts its financial rules and procedures

As agreed upon by the member states at the 19th NOWPAP IGM, the financial rules and procedures for the NOWPAP funds have become effective since 1 January 2015.  The adoption of the rules and procedures allows NOWPAP to establish working capital reserve for NOWPAP accounts in order to guarantee the financial liquidity and integrity of the funds.  In addition, it requires certain documents to be accessible online, such as programme of work and budget, financial statements, status of pledges and contributions, and audit reports.  These documents are now available here. 

NOWPAP co-sponsors a session and workshops with PICES

A special topic session on indicators of emerging pollution issues in the North Pacific Ocean during the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) 2015 annual meeting to be held in October 2015 in Qingdao, PR China, is currently being planned, with NOWPAP to co-sponsor through financial support for several participants.  The selection of the candidate speakers is underway through NOWPAP’s Pollution Monitoring Regional Activity Centre (POMRAC) and coordination with PICES is undertaken by the RCU.  In addition, NOWPAP’s Special Monitoring & Coastal Environmental Assessment Regional Activity Centre (CEARAC) and Marine Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response Regional Activity Centre (MERRAC) will co-convene respectively two workshops on identifying major threats to marine biodiversity and ecosystems and on marine environment emergencies—detection, monitoring, response and impacts.