35th Meeting of the Ramsar Standing Committee
| CONVENTION ON WETLANDS (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) 35th Meeting of the Standing Committee Gland, Switzerland, 14-16 February 2007 |
 |  | DOC. SC35/SG Finance-3 |
Agenda item 8
Towards a new budget framework for COP10
| Action requested: The Subgroup on Finance is invited to consider the suggested method for presenting the Core Budget and provide its advice to the Standing Committee on this matter. |
1. During discussions in September 2006 between the Standing Committee Chair and Vice-Chair, the Chair of the Subgroup on Finance, and the Secretariat, the issue of the form of the framework and presentation of the Convention's Core Budget was discussed.
2. One option that was considered in those discussions was to reorganize the main budget line headings in such a way as to group all forms of expenditure (staff salaries and social costs, travel costs, service costs, etc.) under a series of major headings for each of the thematic work areas under which the Convention and its Secretariat operates. It was felt that this might allow Parties to see more clearly what implementation purposes the various budget line amounts in the Core Burdget are applied to.
3. The attached table has been prepared by the Secretariat to provide the Standing Committee with an initial suggestion of how such a reorganized budget might be presented. To provide the example, the attached table uses the budget expenditures from the COP9-approved core budget for 2007.
4. It must be stressed that this table is provided for illustrative purposes only. The overall budget figure and allocations in this illustration are unchanged from those approved by COP9; rather each of the budget lines in the COP9-approved format has been reallocated to one or more of the thematic work areas used for the illustration, solely in order to suggest what an eventual COP10 budget proposal might look like if Standing Committee should find this approach to be promising.
Illustration of Core Budget organized by thematic work areas
|
2007 EXPENDITURES – by Thematic Work Areas | Sub-totals (CHF) | Thematic totals (CHF) |
|
A. SECRETARIAT SENIOR MANAGEMENT |
| 525,729 |
| i. Salaries & social costs (SG/DSG) | 488,729 |
|
| ii. Travel on Official Business (International) | 37,000 |
|
|
B. REGIONAL ADVICE & SUPPORT |
| 1,296,928 |
| i. Salaries & social costs (SRAs, Oceania officer, Assistants, DSG-RA) | 1,223,928 |
|
| ii. Travel on Official Business (International) | 73,000 |
|
|
C. SUPPORT TO REGIONAL INITIATIVES |
| 202,382 |
| i. Regional networks (cooperation) | 102,382 |
|
| ii. Regional centers (training & capacity-building) | 100,000 |
|
|
D. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL SERVICES |
| 263,310 |
| i. STRP (implementation/meeting & staff costs) | 203,310 |
|
| ii. Ramsar Sites Information Service | 160,000 |
|
|
E. CEPA - COMMUNICATION, EDUCATION & PUBLIC AWARENESS |
| 464,446 |
| i. Salaries & social costs | 322,196 |
|
| ii. Communications & Reporting implementation | 142,250 |
|
|
F. ADMINISTRATION & PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT |
| 703,633 |
| i. Administration (salaries & social costs + IUCN services) | 485,875 |
|
| ii. Human Resources (salaries & social costs + IUCN services) | 93,913 |
|
| iii. Other employment benefits | 98,470 |
|
| iv. Staff hiring and departure costs | 25,375 |
|
|
G. FINANCE MANAGEMENT |
| 433,328 |
| i. Salaries & social costs | 178,048 |
|
| ii. Finance Services - IUCN | 255,280 |
|
|
H. OPERATING COSTS |
| 194,789 |
| i. Information Technology (IT) services - IUCN | 66,489 |
|
| ii. Operating Costs | 91,500 |
|
| iii. Travel on Official Business (contingency) | 11,800 |
|
| iv. Purchase & Maintenance of Equipment/Office Supplies (including depreciation) | 25,000 |
|
|
I. STANDING COMMITTEE SERVICES |
| 71,735 |
| i. Standing Committee delegates' support | 46,360 |
|
| ii. Simultaneous interpretation at SC meetings | 25,375 |
|
|
J. MISCELLANEOUS |
| 50,000 |
| i. Bad debt provision | 50,000 |
|
| ii. Exchange loss |
|
|
|
COP related costs incurred by the Secretariat |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| TOTAL FORECAST EXPENDITURE | 4,206,277 | 4,206,277 |
