As part of the restructuring of UNEP to reflect its renewed mandate as expressed in the Nairobi Declaration and its new priorities adopted by the UNEP Governing Council, a major effort has been undertaken with the assistance of a number of outside advisers to prepare a new UNEP-wide Environmental Observing and Assessment Strategy. A first draft was prepared by the advisers and the secretariat in December 1998, and made available as an information document at the UNEP Governing Council in February 1999. UNEP is now consulting widely to build a wide consensus on the strategic elements, and to identify the partnerships that should be developed or extended to implement the strategy and the linkages with other processes that should be incorporated. The Earthwatch Working Party is the principal mechanism for extending this discussion to the whole UN system, and for identifying where more detailed bilateral consultations may be necessary.

The most recent draft of the strategy is annexed to this paper and available on the Earthwatch web site at http://www.unep.ch/earthw/str2.htm. The earlier draft and a Reference Paper providing further amplification and background for the strategy are also available on the strategies page of the Earthwatch web site (http://www.unep.ch/earthw/strategy.htm).