18 September 2014: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) organized a training workshop on accessing and using its Rio Markers for reporting environment-related aid flows. The training highlighted recent developments in improving the Rio Markers, as well as efforts to adapt the current statistical framework for the post-2015 development agenda.

In the initial introduction to the Rio Markers, the Working Party on Development Finance Statistics (WP-STAT) and Network on Environment and Development Co-operation (ENVIRONET) teams presented how the Markers are used to track multiple objectives simultaneously while avoiding double counting of finance flows. The presenters also highlighted areas for improvement, including the need for more training for users and increased harmonization.

The following session took participants through a visual tutorial on accessing and using the DAC statistical database (OECD.Stat) and the data visualization portal. In a final session, participants learned how multilateral development aid flows to climate change are treated within the framework, namely by estimating the climate-related proportion of donor countries’ core contributions to multilateral organizations through “imputed multilateral contributions.”

The workshop was held in Paris, France, on 18 September 2014, in conjunction with the ENVIRONET-WP-STAT Task Team Third Experts’ Meeting, which reviewed progress on reporting of environment-related ODA flows.

ENVIRONET is a network of multilateral institutions and development agencies from member countries of OECD DAC. WP-STAT is also a subsidiary body of OECD DAC. The OECD Rio Markers were created to help countries complete their National Communications to the three Rio Conventions—the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). [OECD Workshop Webpage] [IISD RS Story on ENVIRONET-WP-STAT Task Team Third Experts’ Meeting] [OECD Statistics on ODA for Rio Conventions]