BCH on BCH Forum

Dear Forum Participants,

**Introduction**

Please allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Anastasia Beliaeva and I have recently taken up the position of the Programme Management Assistant for the Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH) in the Biosafety Unit of the Secretariat. I have been with the Secretariat already for about 16 years working in a different capacity and I am very happy to be taking up this new role. Please note that, among other things, I will be the one communicating with you on a regular basis (via e-mail and this forum) in order to keep you abreast of the latest developments in the BCH, assist you with any issues you may have and also follow-up with you concerning the completeness and accuracy of various records in the BCH, respective to your countries.

**BCH on BCH Forum: Purpose**

The purpose of this forum is to serve as a means of communication between everyone who is actively involved in using the BCH (especially, in registering and updating various types of records). This forum is intended mainly for the National Focal Points (BCH and CPB) and National Authorized Users (NAUs). I would like to encourage all of you to use this forum as an opportunity to exchange and share your views and experiences with the Secretariat (namely, its Biosafety Unit), and other colleagues around the world on the use of the BCH.

Please take note that this is an INFORMAL forum. The main language of communication is English. Nevertheless, please feel free to post messages in any one of the languages of your preference (among the 6 official UN languages). My colleagues and I will try our best to respond to you in the respective language.

**BCH Migration**

As you are aware, the Secretariat has finally embarked on the migration of the BCH to the new platform. I will be providing you with more information about the status of migration as it becomes available.

At this point, I would like to draw your attention to two items with respect to the latest developments in the BCH migration:

1) CHRONOGRAM

The chronogram outlines the timeline for the migration of the BCH to its new platform and the follow-up processes.

The notification about the chronogram for the BCH migration has been issued and is available  here: https://www.cbd.int/doc/notifications/2019/ntf-2019-063-bs-en.pdf

2) ONLINE FORMAT FOR THE FOURTH NATIONAL REPORT is already available as a preview version in the new BCH platform at this link:  https://beta.bch.cbd.int/register/NR4 

The deadline for the submission of the 4th National Reports is 1 October 2019.
To help you get started, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), in particular to Questions 2 and 3, which explain in detail how to start registering the report using the new preview online format. FAQs are accessible here: http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/national-report-faq. Please note that CPB, BCH focal points and NAUs can all create and register the 4th National Report. However, it is only the BCH focal points who have the right to publish the report. Again, please refer to Question 3 of the FAQs which describes in detail the steps to follow.

If you have any further questions on using the new online format, please do not hesitate to contact me via e-mail or through this forum.

We hope that you will actively participate in this forum and enjoy this opportunity to share your views and experiences with us at the Secretariat, and other colleagues around the world.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Kind regards,
Anastasia

***Posted on behalf of/publié au nom de Mme Safiatou Diallo :***


Bonjour madame. Merci beaucoup pour  le courrier. Nous avons fait une requête signée par le point  focal du fem de la Guinée  avec l'endossement pour pouvoir bénéficier de l'assistance du fem pour le 4e rapport.
Jusqu'à présent nous n'avons obtenu aucun retour pour nous situer sur l'évolution du dossier.
Merci de la suite que vous voudrez bien nous donner. J'avais écrit à monsieur Alex à ce sujet
Cordialement.

Le point focal biosécurité

ING. Safiatou Diallo
Directrice Nationale de l'assainissement et du cadre de vie Ministère de l'environnement et des eaux et forêts

Bonjour Madame Diallo,

Merci pour votre courriel. Je vous réponds en utilisant ce forum car cette information pourrait également être utile aux autres participants.

Nous sommes heureux que votre gouvernement a fait une demande pour le soutien financier dans le cadre du projet du FEM-PNUE pour compléter votre quatrième rapport national.
Malheureusement, actuellement nous ne disposons pas d'informations sur l'état d'avancement du projet, mais certains de mes collègues vont rencontrer Monsieur Alex Owusu-Biney la semaine du 26 août (pendant la première réunion du groupe de travail composition non limitées sur le cadre mondial pour la diversite biologique après 2020, qui se tiendra du 27 au 30 août 2019 à Nairobi, au Kenya, et les deux ateliers de consultation sur CPB et ABS, qui se tiendront en parallèle le 25 août 2019).

De notre part, lorsque nous aurons plus d'informations, nous les partagerons via ce forum.
Cordialement,

Anastasia

Thank you dear Anastasia
Happy being a part of this important forum
Best regards
Felicien

Dear Ms. Anastacia Belieava,
 
Receive my sincere congratulations on the new post.

Regarding the fourth report, the country sends a letter signed by the GEF focal point to support its elaboration, so far we have not received any reply.
At the moment we do not have the means to draw up this report.

BCH focal point
Jessica Camala

Dear Ms. Camala,

Thank you!

At this moment we do not have information on the status of the GEF-UNEP project. Some of my colleagues will be in Nairobi for the OEWG-1 meeting and the consulation workshops (from 25 to 30 August). they will have a meeting with Alex Owusu-Biney. Once we have more information, we will share it though this forum.

Kind regards.

Anastasia

Dear Anastasia,

Congratulations on your new position in the Secretariat. It's good to be part of this forum.  The experience with the new platform is lovely but published fourth national report by countries cannot be tracked on the old BCH. An information  link between the platforms will be good

Dear Ms. Blessing,

Thank you for your kind words!

Congratulations on publishing the fourth national report of Nigeria! We are happy that you liked using the new online format. Your feedback is also very important to us.

You are correct, the reports published by other countries are not visible in the old BCH. And they  will not be visible there anymore as everything will be available in the new preview platform though the "National Reports" tab. You can click on this tab even now (it is active) but the information displayed there is not up-to-date yet. Our IT unit is currently working on making this page function as it should: on the report analyzer and on the search functions, in general, for national reports. These new functions (including the feature you mention in your message) should be available in the new preview version soon (in a couple of weeks). Once they are ready, I will inform everyone about it through this forum.

Thank you for your patience.

Anastasia

Dear Anastasia

Congratulation on your new role.

Namibia is currently busy finalizing the fourth National CPB report.
We are looking forward to a new eye-catching BCH platform.

Kind Regards

Paulus

Congratulations Ms. Anastasia and Greetings from the Republic of Palau.

Congratulations MS Anastasia .Best wishes
Dr Gado

Dear Anastasia,
Please accept my sincere congratulations on your new appointment!
Greetings from Belarus.
It is a pleasure to be a part of this forum.

Bonjour Madame
Je mes félicitaions pour votre nomination et souhaite la bienvenue au BCH, étant donné que vous êtes de la boîte, je pense que votre nomination va apporter un soufle nouveau au BCH.
Je vous affirme ma collaboration pour faire avancer le BCH.
Mes très sincères félicitations

Bonjour Madame Anastasia
Je suis ravie de participer à ce forum entre les parties prenantes du BCH.
Je trouve ces échanges comme une source renforcements de capacités dans l'accomplissements de nos tâches de Points Focaux BCH.
Quand au quatrième de mon pays je suis de renseigner le formulaire.
Merci pour cette belle initiative.
Considérations distinguées.

Dear Anastasia,

Congratulations and Greetings from Turkey.

It is a pleasure to be a part of this important forum.

Dear Anastasia

Thanks for your email and all the information you have been provided which has been duly noted. Congratulations on your new post.

Regards

Marie-May Muzungaile
Seychelles NFP

Dear Anastasia

Congratulations and greetings from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

It is a pleasure to be part of this important forum. Enter the migration portal and I find it very friendly, it will be very useful to upload the fourth biosafety report.

We are working to present this national report in a timely manner, additionally we would like to consult if you have any knowledge about a project to be financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to support eligible Parties in the preparation and presentation of its fourth national report on the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CBD notification 2019 -042), which encouraged Parties entitled to submit a letter of commitment signed by the GEF operations coordinator and Express your support for the project. .

Thank you very much, again congratulations and successes,

Best regards,

Carliz

Dear Ms. Martinez,

Thank you very much for your kind words.

At this moment we do not have information on the status of the GEF-UNEP project. Some of my colleagues will be in Nairobi for the post-2020 OEWG-1 meeting and the consulation workshops (from 25 to 30 August). They will have a meeting with Alex Owusu-Biney. Once we have more information, we will share it though this forum.

Kind regards.

Anastasia

Chère Anastasia,
Recevez les félicitations de la part de l'équipe Biosécurité de Madagascar pour votre nouveau poste.
Nous comptons beaucoup sur ce forum pour apprendre et échanger les bonnes pratiques relatives à l'utilisation du BCH.
Nous espérons aussi, comme beaucoup d'autres pays, recevoir des informations sur l'appui du GEF aussi bien pour l'établissement du rapport national que pour les autres opportunités de renforcements de capacités.
Nous ne faisons pas partie du projet BCH III et nous recevons aussi des réponses négatives quasi systématiques quand il y a des appels à manifestation d'intérêt pour assister aux sessions de renforcement de capacités.
Bien cordialement.

Bonjour Monsieur  Rakotoarijaona,

Merci pour votre aimable message.

Malheureusement, actuellement nous ne disposons pas d'informations sur l'état d'avancement du projet du FEM-PNUE, mais certains de mes collègues vont rencontrer Monsieur Alex Owusu-Biney la semaine du 26 août (pendant la première réunion du groupe de travail composition non limitées sur le cadre mondial pour la diversite biologique après 2020, qui se tiendra du 27 au 30 août 2019 à Nairobi, au Kenya, et les deux ateliers de consultation sur CPB et ABS, qui se tiendront en parallèle le 25 août 2019).

Lorsque nous aurons plus d'informations, nous les partagerons via ce forum.

Vous pourriez aussi contacter Monsieur Alex Owusu-Biney directement à :

Alex Owusu-Biney
Portfolio Manager (prévention des risques biotechnologiques), Coordination FEM
Département de la mise en oeuvre des politiques sur l'environnement
Programme des Nations Unies pour l’environnement (PNUE)
P. O. Box 30552 - 00100, Nairobi, Kenya
Tél. : +254 20 7624066
Télécopieur : +254 20 7624041/42
alex.owusu-biney@un.org
Web : http://www.unep.org/biosafety

Cordialement,

Anastasia

Toutes mes félicitations pour votre nomination vous avez tout le soutien de la République de Guinée.

Dear Ms Anastasia,

Congratulation, greeting from Cambodia and welcome the BCH family.

All the best,
Monyrak

Dear Anastacia,

Greetings from Guyana and congratulations on your new post!

Looking forward to meaningful engagements via the new platform.

Cheers,

Dear Ms Anastasia,

Greeting from Vietnam!
Congratulations on your new position in the Secretariat.
All the information you have been provided useful for me and my institution.

Best regards,
Nguyen Ba Tu

Your message has been duly noted and Congratulations Anastasia Beliaeva.

Dear Ms. Anastasia Belieava,

Congratulations for the new position.

Regarding the fourth report, we are still waiting for feedback from UNEP/GEF. We sent the endorsement letter duly signed by the GEF operational focal point. 

Best regards

BCH focal point

Dear Ms. Anastasia Belieava,

Congratulations for the new position.

Regarding the fourth report, we are still waiting for feedback from UNEP/GEF.

Best regards

CP focal point, Honduras

Dear Anastasia,
Congratulations on your new appointment!
Greetings from Mongolia.
It is a pleasure to be a part of this forum with Asian Biosafety Family Members.

Thank you, Anastasia, for setting up this forum. Looking forward to our continued cooperation.

Regards,

Rami Abdel Malik
BCH III Project Manager
MEAs Support and Cooperation Unit
Law Division

UN Environment
UN Gigiri, New Office Facility, Block 1, Level 2, North Wing
PO Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya
Tel:+ 254 207626730
Mobile: +254 715507755
E-mail: Rami.Abdel-Malik@un.org

Dear Anastasia,
Greetings from Mongolia.
Congratulations on your new position in the Secretariat.
All the information you have been provided useful for me and my ministry.

Best regards,
Uranchimeg Tserendorj.

Ministry of Environment and tourism of
Mongolia

Dear Ms Anastasia,

Greeting from Lao PDR !
Congratulations on your new position in the Secretariat.

I am pleased to inform you that our 4th National Report is in the process. We hope we will submit the report on time.

Concerning a project to support of this report. Could you pleased to share the result of the post-2020 OEWG-1 meeting and the consultation workshops (from 25 to 30 August).

Best regards,

Viengpasith VANISAVETH

Ministry of Science and Technology
Lao PDR

Dear Mrs. Vanisaveth,

Thank you for your message.

We are happy to hear about the progress in the preparation of the 4th National Report.

As for the outcomes of the post-2020 OEWG-1 meeting and the consultation workshops, you will find them on our website at: https://www.cbd.int/meetings/WG2020-01. The DRAFT report is already available and is listed as item #1 on that web page.

Kind regards,
Anastasia

Congratulations Anastasia on your appointment!

I have a query with regards to the submission of the 4th National Report. Whom do we communicate with at the Secretariat with regards to any discussion about its submission?

Thanks.

Dear Anita,

Thank you very much!

In response to your question, you can write to me directly regarding the submission of the 4th National Report. Depending on the subject, I will coordinate the response in consultation with my colleagues.

Kind regards,

Anastasia