The 1^st Steering Committee Meeting of the SCS SAP project was held online on the 29 and 30 of June, 2021 with official representatives from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam and the UNEP Task Manager for the project, with the support of SEAFDEC, UNOPS and the Project Coordination Unit staff. National teams also participated as observers with a total of 51 participants in total. Over the course of one year, three regional meetings and over 30 national meetings and bilateral have been held in preparation. Regret was expressed that the meeting could not meet in person due to COVID-19 but it was stressed that “This project will not be stopped by the pandemic!”

National agencies from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand as well as the Project Implementation Unit met on 15 March 2021 online to discuss and elaborate further the preparation of the National Implementation Report (NIR) for adoption at the First PSC meeting. A total of forty-three (43) participants attended the meeting.

The meeting was organized to provide support and guidance to the national teams in order to have a common and clear understanding on how to develop and complete the NIR, which is considered as the National Project Document that will be the basis for execution of the project and its activities at national and site levels. All participants expressed appreciation on the timely organization of the meeting as it provided them guidance and clarification in addressing issues and concerns encountered in developing and completing the NIR.

For further details of the meeting, see the project website at https://www.scssap.org/events.

Sixty-five (65) participants from national agencies from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam as well as from UN agencies UNEP and UNOPS and regional organizations SEAFDEC and COBSEA met on 4 December 2020 online to further discuss the elaboration of national and regional activities for the UNEP/GEF South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand project to implement the Strategic Action Programme for the marine and coastal environment.

As part of the inception phase of the project, participating countries have organized their respective internal coordination and consultations with concerned agencies and institutions to discuss the project, identify key national focal points, experts and stakeholders, elaborate the activities for the key mangrove, seagrass, coral reef and wetland habitat sites in each country.

The UNEP GEF Implementing the Strategic Action Programme for the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand (SCS SAP) Project held its first Inception Phase online meeting on Thursday 30^th July 2020, with forty-five (45) participants from national lead agencies from Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam as well as implementing and executing agencies, UNEP, UNOPS, and the Inception Phase consultants. China was unable to participate due to technical issues, which will be resolved for future meetings.

A Project Inception Team has been engaged by UNEP since April 2020 to work on the preparation and documentation for the SCS-SAP Project inception phase. The team, composed of Dr. Virginie Hart and Mr. Reynaldo Molina, aims to elaborate the regional and national activities of the project, in close consultation with national and regional partners, and in preparation for an Inception Phase meeting. This Inception Phase gives opportunity for countries and project partners to collectively review and discuss the project design and activities to ensure that the project is fully in line with recent and current national initiatives and priorities, given the period of time between the SAP adoption in 2008, the CEO endorsement in 2016 and the present.

Based on the SSC SAP Project document endorsed by the GEF Secretariat, the team is currently drafting the Regional Implementation Report and the National Implementation Reports for each country detailing the information on the execution of regional and national activities, including the documentation for the project inception meeting to be organized possibly in late 2020 or early 2021.

This initiative entitled “Implementing the Strategic Action Programme for the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand" is financed by the Global Environment Facility and is implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme in partnership with the Ministries responsible for environment in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The overall objective of this initiative is to assist the governments of the participating countries in meeting the targets of the approved Strategic Action Programme (SAP) for the South China Sea through the provision of technical assistance as required in implementing national activities in support of the SAP; and the provision of strong regional co-ordination of the process of SAP implementation.