What science doesn't say - implementing vulnerability assessments as part of ...NAP Global Network
Presentation given by Emilie Beauchamp, Lead and Shafaq Masud, Policy Advisor, MEL for climate change adaptation, IISD, as part of Adaptation Futures 2023.
What science doesn't say - implementing vulnerability assessments as part of ...NAP Global Network
Presentation given by Emilie Beauchamp, Lead and Shafaq Masud, Policy Advisor, MEL for climate change adaptation, IISD, as part of Adaptation Futures 2023.
Development of Local Climate Action Plans in 3 Jordanian MunicipalitiesCagney
This presentation was developed by Isabella Claydon based on the Technical Plan that was accepted for implementation.
Building local capacities (scientifically and technically) for improved resiliency to climate-related challenges is a multi- and interdisciplinary challenge. The DIMETRIC team will be working in 3 municipalities in Jordan to develop Local Climate Action Plans under the German Development Agency's (GIZ) initiative 'Developing an Effective Mechanism for the Review, Update and Implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan'.
On May 21, 2021, ICLR conducted a Friday Forum webinar titled 'Climate Disclosure, Litigation and Finance'"Climate Disclosure, Litigation and Finance' is a forthcoming chapter in 'Canada in a Changing Climate: National Issues'. In this webinar, chapter authors Paul Kovacs, Gordon McBean, Gordon Beal, Maryam Golnaraghi, Pat Koval and Bohan Li examined the evolving climate risks for businesses and governments.
Climate change is now widely regarded as an environmental and an economic issue. While the policy discussion about climate change emphasizes the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to better cope with the impact of extreme events, the business community is increasingly focused on the physical and transition risks and opportunities presented by climate change. The research team will discuss how managing the risks and opportunities associated with climate change affect a company’s ability to access capital, deliver products and services, hire and retain employees and achieve positive financial performance.
Paul Kovacs is the Executive Director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.
Professor Emeritus Gordon McBean is with the ICLR and Department of Geography and Environment, Western University and the past President of the International Council for Science and former ADM of the atmospheric component of Environment Canada.
Gordon Beal, CPA, CA, M.Ed., is the Vice President of Research Guidance and Support for Chartered Professional Accountants Canada and a member of Canada’s National Climate Change Adaptation Platform Plenary.
Dr. Maryam Golnaraghi is the Director of Climate Change and Environment at The Geneva Association, a platform of Group CEOs of largest insurance companies, a non-resident senior fellow at The Atlantic Council and serves on a number of boards and advisory councils in the US, Canada and the UK.
Patricia Koval, JD, is a Board Director of a number of companies in the United States and Canada, a former partner of a major Canadian law firm, and a member of the Ontario Advisory Panel on Climate Change.
Dr. Bohan Li is a research associate at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.
Presentation from the workshop 'Informing and Enabling a Climate Resilient Ireland”' - held 23 March 2012. This event launched 2 EPA Climate Change Research Programme reports:
CCRP9 'Ireland adapts to Climate Change' and CCRP10 'Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Sectoral Policies in Ireland'
Jackie Smith explains the ins and outs of ECCI's Smart Accelerator Project.
The aim of the project is to identify, support and accelerate the formation, packaging and financing of up to 12 Scottish project partnerships that support Scotland’s transition to a low carbon economy and society through creating smarter and more sustainable cities, communities and islands.
Case studies on economic appraisal of adaptation options in some countriesNAP Events
Presented by: Paul Watkiss
8.4 Case studies on economic appraisal of adaptation options
This session will build on the plenary presentation on economic appraisal to go into detail about some of the methods that countries can use to appraise their adaptation options. The methods used in the recent UNEP adaptation finance gap report will set the scene for discussion of how the regional approaches can be reconciled with national efforts to estimate costs for adaptation.
Energy Low Emission Development Strategies: A Regional Overview of Latin Am...Worldwatch Institute
Overall, Latin America and the Caribbean has traditionally been a world leader in the use of renewable energy sources for power generation (mainly hydro power), with important sub-regional differences, but the use of fossil fuels grew rapidly in the late 1900s.
There have been many initiatives on renewables and energy efficiency on the part of governments and local organizations, supported by multilateral development banks, UN organizations, international NGOs.
The recent development of non-traditional renewable energies (wind, solar, geothermal, modern biomass) is helping meet important development goals (growth, access, affordability) with a lower impact on greenhouse gas emissions.
There are still important challenges related to investment climate and business model financing, but there are many lessons to share, both on what works and what doesn´t work.
Lost at sea? Charting wave energy’s difficult innovation journey towards comm...Matthew Hannon
A retrospective of the effectiveness of UK wave energy innovation policy since 2000. Identification of innovation support weaknesses, progress in addressing these and recommendations for next steps to accelerate wave energy innovation.
Provisional agenda and presentation for the global atlas training workshop in...Whitney Chen
Global Atlas Training on Planning the Renewable Energy Transition Using Solar and Wind Maps
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), supported by the Renewables Academy (RENAC) developed a training module entitled Planning the Renewable Energy Transition Using Solar and Wind Maps. The central objective is to allow policy makers and regulators to derive policy-relevant information from resource mapping information. The intensive 2-day training included hands-on practice with IRENA’s online Global Atlas platform to identify resource hotspots, followed by simulations of support schemes attractive to investors in the identified zones.
Participants indicated the training would help guide zoning and planning for solar and wind developments and the related policy debate.
Three sessions were organized with support of the Flemish government, Brussels Capital Region and Germany.
All materials are available free of charge for training purposes. Contact: potentials@irena.org
Development of Local Climate Action Plans in 3 Jordanian MunicipalitiesCagney
This presentation was developed by Isabella Claydon based on the Technical Plan that was accepted for implementation.
Building local capacities (scientifically and technically) for improved resiliency to climate-related challenges is a multi- and interdisciplinary challenge. The DIMETRIC team will be working in 3 municipalities in Jordan to develop Local Climate Action Plans under the German Development Agency's (GIZ) initiative 'Developing an Effective Mechanism for the Review, Update and Implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan'.
On May 21, 2021, ICLR conducted a Friday Forum webinar titled 'Climate Disclosure, Litigation and Finance'"Climate Disclosure, Litigation and Finance' is a forthcoming chapter in 'Canada in a Changing Climate: National Issues'. In this webinar, chapter authors Paul Kovacs, Gordon McBean, Gordon Beal, Maryam Golnaraghi, Pat Koval and Bohan Li examined the evolving climate risks for businesses and governments.
Climate change is now widely regarded as an environmental and an economic issue. While the policy discussion about climate change emphasizes the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to better cope with the impact of extreme events, the business community is increasingly focused on the physical and transition risks and opportunities presented by climate change. The research team will discuss how managing the risks and opportunities associated with climate change affect a company’s ability to access capital, deliver products and services, hire and retain employees and achieve positive financial performance.
Paul Kovacs is the Executive Director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.
Professor Emeritus Gordon McBean is with the ICLR and Department of Geography and Environment, Western University and the past President of the International Council for Science and former ADM of the atmospheric component of Environment Canada.
Gordon Beal, CPA, CA, M.Ed., is the Vice President of Research Guidance and Support for Chartered Professional Accountants Canada and a member of Canada’s National Climate Change Adaptation Platform Plenary.
Dr. Maryam Golnaraghi is the Director of Climate Change and Environment at The Geneva Association, a platform of Group CEOs of largest insurance companies, a non-resident senior fellow at The Atlantic Council and serves on a number of boards and advisory councils in the US, Canada and the UK.
Patricia Koval, JD, is a Board Director of a number of companies in the United States and Canada, a former partner of a major Canadian law firm, and a member of the Ontario Advisory Panel on Climate Change.
Dr. Bohan Li is a research associate at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.
Presentation from the workshop 'Informing and Enabling a Climate Resilient Ireland”' - held 23 March 2012. This event launched 2 EPA Climate Change Research Programme reports:
CCRP9 'Ireland adapts to Climate Change' and CCRP10 'Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Sectoral Policies in Ireland'
Jackie Smith explains the ins and outs of ECCI's Smart Accelerator Project.
The aim of the project is to identify, support and accelerate the formation, packaging and financing of up to 12 Scottish project partnerships that support Scotland’s transition to a low carbon economy and society through creating smarter and more sustainable cities, communities and islands.
Case studies on economic appraisal of adaptation options in some countriesNAP Events
Presented by: Paul Watkiss
8.4 Case studies on economic appraisal of adaptation options
This session will build on the plenary presentation on economic appraisal to go into detail about some of the methods that countries can use to appraise their adaptation options. The methods used in the recent UNEP adaptation finance gap report will set the scene for discussion of how the regional approaches can be reconciled with national efforts to estimate costs for adaptation.
Energy Low Emission Development Strategies: A Regional Overview of Latin Am...Worldwatch Institute
Overall, Latin America and the Caribbean has traditionally been a world leader in the use of renewable energy sources for power generation (mainly hydro power), with important sub-regional differences, but the use of fossil fuels grew rapidly in the late 1900s.
There have been many initiatives on renewables and energy efficiency on the part of governments and local organizations, supported by multilateral development banks, UN organizations, international NGOs.
The recent development of non-traditional renewable energies (wind, solar, geothermal, modern biomass) is helping meet important development goals (growth, access, affordability) with a lower impact on greenhouse gas emissions.
There are still important challenges related to investment climate and business model financing, but there are many lessons to share, both on what works and what doesn´t work.
Lost at sea? Charting wave energy’s difficult innovation journey towards comm...Matthew Hannon
A retrospective of the effectiveness of UK wave energy innovation policy since 2000. Identification of innovation support weaknesses, progress in addressing these and recommendations for next steps to accelerate wave energy innovation.
Provisional agenda and presentation for the global atlas training workshop in...Whitney Chen
Global Atlas Training on Planning the Renewable Energy Transition Using Solar and Wind Maps
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), supported by the Renewables Academy (RENAC) developed a training module entitled Planning the Renewable Energy Transition Using Solar and Wind Maps. The central objective is to allow policy makers and regulators to derive policy-relevant information from resource mapping information. The intensive 2-day training included hands-on practice with IRENA’s online Global Atlas platform to identify resource hotspots, followed by simulations of support schemes attractive to investors in the identified zones.
Participants indicated the training would help guide zoning and planning for solar and wind developments and the related policy debate.
Three sessions were organized with support of the Flemish government, Brussels Capital Region and Germany.
All materials are available free of charge for training purposes. Contact: potentials@irena.org
In his public lecture, Christian Timmerer provides insights into the fascinating history of video streaming, starting from its humble beginnings before YouTube to the groundbreaking technologies that now dominate platforms like Netflix and ORF ON. Timmerer also presents provocative contributions of his own that have significantly influenced the industry. He concludes by looking at future challenges and invites the audience to join in a discussion.
Le nuove frontiere dell'AI nell'RPA con UiPath Autopilot™UiPathCommunity
In questo evento online gratuito, organizzato dalla Community Italiana di UiPath, potrai esplorare le nuove funzionalità di Autopilot, il tool che integra l'Intelligenza Artificiale nei processi di sviluppo e utilizzo delle Automazioni.
📕 Vedremo insieme alcuni esempi dell'utilizzo di Autopilot in diversi tool della Suite UiPath:
Autopilot per Studio Web
Autopilot per Studio
Autopilot per Apps
Clipboard AI
GenAI applicata alla Document Understanding
👨🏫👨💻 Speakers:
Stefano Negro, UiPath MVPx3, RPA Tech Lead @ BSP Consultant
Flavio Martinelli, UiPath MVP 2023, Technical Account Manager @UiPath
Andrei Tasca, RPA Solutions Team Lead @NTT Data
Pushing the limits of ePRTC: 100ns holdover for 100 daysAdtran
At WSTS 2024, Alon Stern explored the topic of parametric holdover and explained how recent research findings can be implemented in real-world PNT networks to achieve 100 nanoseconds of accuracy for up to 100 days.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
The Metaverse and AI: how can decision-makers harness the Metaverse for their...Jen Stirrup
The Metaverse is popularized in science fiction, and now it is becoming closer to being a part of our daily lives through the use of social media and shopping companies. How can businesses survive in a world where Artificial Intelligence is becoming the present as well as the future of technology, and how does the Metaverse fit into business strategy when futurist ideas are developing into reality at accelerated rates? How do we do this when our data isn't up to scratch? How can we move towards success with our data so we are set up for the Metaverse when it arrives?
How can you help your company evolve, adapt, and succeed using Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse to stay ahead of the competition? What are the potential issues, complications, and benefits that these technologies could bring to us and our organizations? In this session, Jen Stirrup will explain how to start thinking about these technologies as an organisation.
SAP Sapphire 2024 - ASUG301 building better apps with SAP Fiori.pdfPeter Spielvogel
Building better applications for business users with SAP Fiori.
• What is SAP Fiori and why it matters to you
• How a better user experience drives measurable business benefits
• How to get started with SAP Fiori today
• How SAP Fiori elements accelerates application development
• How SAP Build Code includes SAP Fiori tools and other generative artificial intelligence capabilities
• How SAP Fiori paves the way for using AI in SAP apps
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
Imagine a world where software fuzzing, the process of mutating bytes in test seeds to uncover hidden and erroneous program behaviors, becomes faster and more effective. A lot depends on the initial seeds, which can significantly dictate the trajectory of a fuzzing campaign, particularly in terms of how long it takes to uncover interesting behaviour in your code. We introduce DIAR, a technique designed to speedup fuzzing campaigns by pinpointing and eliminating those uninteresting bytes in the seeds. Picture this: instead of wasting valuable resources on meaningless mutations in large, bloated seeds, DIAR removes the unnecessary bytes, streamlining the entire process.
In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
zkStudyClub - Reef: Fast Succinct Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Regex ProofsAlex Pruden
This paper presents Reef, a system for generating publicly verifiable succinct non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs that a committed document matches or does not match a regular expression. We describe applications such as proving the strength of passwords, the provenance of email despite redactions, the validity of oblivious DNS queries, and the existence of mutations in DNA. Reef supports the Perl Compatible Regular Expression syntax, including wildcards, alternation, ranges, capture groups, Kleene star, negations, and lookarounds. Reef introduces a new type of automata, Skipping Alternating Finite Automata (SAFA), that skips irrelevant parts of a document when producing proofs without undermining soundness, and instantiates SAFA with a lookup argument. Our experimental evaluation confirms that Reef can generate proofs for documents with 32M characters; the proofs are small and cheap to verify (under a second).
Paper: https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1886
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Enhancing Performance with Globus and the Science DMZGlobus
ESnet has led the way in helping national facilities—and many other institutions in the research community—configure Science DMZs and troubleshoot network issues to maximize data transfer performance. In this talk we will present a summary of approaches and tips for getting the most out of your network infrastructure using Globus Connect Server.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI support
Cook_Islands
1. ?z Challenges faced by the Cook Islands when implementing its Second National Communication Project. 2 nd December 2010, Cancun, Mexico Teresa Miimetua Matamaki – Project Coordinator
Background on when the Cook Islands started its SNC Report. First disbursement was received in late July of 2006. Held the first stakeholder meeting in August to set up the steering committee – National Climate Change Country Team. Team was formed during the Initial Nat Com project. Extend membership to cover NGO’s, RAC, Traditional Leaders. At the final stages of the project – have a draft SNC report and hoping to finalise the report in Jan 2011. Main Outputs: 3 site specific V&A Assessments 2 nd GHG inventory report and its Methodology report based on the 2006 IPCC Gudielines Education and Awareness Mitigation Analysis TNA reports Climate and Weather of the Cook Islands. Upon undertaking the project we faced some challenges.
Funds did not get in country until mid-2006 and by then 2 quarters had already passed. There is an overall cap of 15% for management costs which include funding for the salary of staff to manage and deliver the project. A further complication is the fact that the management cost of the implementing agencies further reduces this 15% available to the country. Difficult to get a full time coordinator to work on the project alone. U need to have cc tech expertise as well as experiecnce in finacila and project management, with the liomited amouhnt it doent cover the cost for an experience person. For the past 2 years the coordinator has been paid for by the Government of the Cook Islands. Convention obligation and national priorities – full time coordinator CC is a cross cutting issue and ther is no one agnecy mandated to lead at the national level. Where does climate change best fit – cc is being addressed on an ad hoc basis. Not their priority so they won’t participate, its additional to their existing full time workload. Civil society in the cooks is voluntary……they are members of out national cc country team.
The project budget doesn’t allow for full time technical staff and provides instead for consultancies. There are challenges to using consultants over government staff.
The cook islands has a very small popn ie less than 20,000. we have a limited pool of technical experts both within government and the private sector. We also have a very mobile population which contributes to high staff turn over which mean alto of intitutional capacity is lost and causes delay. The Cook Is is made up of 15 islands scattered over 2 million square km of ocean. We have northern cook isl and southern cook ils. Transportation costs between islands are very expensive. We could not afford to do a v&a for every island but we at least try to do a sample of each island type and group.
As additional reporting requirements are established, it will be essential that the circumstances of SIDS like ourselves are taken into account.
Given the challenges outlined above, the cIs adopted a number of solutions. – adjusted the work plans and to the plan around national calendars to create synergies with other existing national initiative and event. For example – we used existing national development forums such as the National Environment Forum and the Infrastructure Forum to ensure that the priorities identified by the Nat Com were aligned with these processes. This assured alignment and also allowed for cost sharing. We were able to use regional expertise where national expertise weren't there. We also used national experts from other countries for example – Samoa’s consultant for their GHG Inventory also did the Cook Islands GHG Inventory.
The needs of coomunities to have continued access to safe drinking water All critical infrastructure in the cook islands is located on the coastal zone.
This is largely driven by high fuel cost for electricity