Policy Briefs COP9 (2021)

COP9 Policy Briefs

Investment Fund

Key Recommendations

FCA welcomes the proposal of investment funds for COP and MOP to address their respective budget constraints.
The proposed oversight committees to support monitoring and implementation of the investment funds would benefit greatly from the inclusion of civil society observers to the COP and the MOP.
It is critically important that sources of Party revenue contributed to the investment funds are in addition to their Assessed Contributions and any Extrabudgetary Funds provided.
FCA recognises that an investment fund could be used to enable the Convention Secretariat to provide additional national-level technical implementation assistance. However, there remains a significant funding gap in national-level FCTC implementation. Moving forward, FCA would recommend the Secretariat continue to explore sustainable funding mechanisms to respond to the gaps in financial resources for FCTC implementation, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Country Parties.

Budget and Workplan

Key Recommendations

FCA welcomes the alignment of the COP budget and workplan with the Global Strategy.
FCA welcomes the long-term sustainability of the FCTC through strengthening the investment in Secretariat staff from the Assessed Contributions to the budget. However, FCA is concerned that implementation of the FCTC comes mainly from Extrabudgetary Funding and calls on Parties to seek to commit Extrabudgetary Contributions early in the biennium to support the crucial FCTC implementation work.
In the case that in-person meetings are to be held over the next biennium, if health measures permit given the ongoing pandemic, COP9 should also ensure that the Workplan and Budget provides travel support for low- and middle-income country Parties to attend FCTC-related meetings.

Adoption of the agenda

Key Recommendations

FCA supports the proposed agenda for COP9, as elaborated in the annotated agenda, including the Bureau’s proposal to defer a number of discussions on technical matters and treaty instruments to COP10.
FCA supports the Bureau’s proposal to note the reports and defer discussions on agenda items 4 and 5 (documents COP/9/6 to COP/9/11) to the next in-person session of the COP. The foreseen in-person discussions at COP10 will provide a more appropriate environment for discussions and negotiations and would be more conducive to consensus and progress in FCTC implementation.