The Permanent International Secretariat of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC PERMIS), in cooperation with the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution, is organizing a regional stakeholder webinar to initiate consultations on the environmental and social aspects of the “Blueing the Black Sea” GEF Regional project on Wednesday, October 27, at 11:00 am (GMT+3).

Register in advance for this webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1iOnJC2lTRmUeFBB-lM1Jw

The main sessions of the webinar will introduce:

I.                    Blueing the Black Sea (BBSEA) GEF Regional Project. This presentation will centre on the investment component of the planned BBSEA – a regional project funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The discussion will contribute to the understanding of the priorities of public authorities and private stakeholders with respect to the overall project and its parts and to the promotion of eco-sustainable business practices, innovation, and finance that support pollution reduction. The presentation will touch upon avenues to involve financial institutions in funding and promoting green technology investments, focusing on pollution reduction.

II.                 Environmental and Social aspects of the BBSEA. The presentations will focus on the anticipated environmental and social aspects of the project, including expected positive and potential negative impacts/risks, requirements of the World Bank Environmental and Social Standards (ESS) and the tools and mechanisms to address the environmental and social risks and impacts (the Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF), Stakeholder Engagement Framework/Plan (SEF/P), Labour Management Plan/Procedure (LMP)), and the means to engage with various groups of stakeholders throughout the project cycle. The disclosed ESF documents can be found here: http://www.bsec-bsvkc.org/Forms/BlueingTheBlackSeaProject

The webinar will be highly interactive and engage with the audience through a live survey and Q&As with the experts. The outcome of the webinar will define the area of expertise and knowledge the region would like to share and receive through the envisaged BBSEA regional program and will inform the dialogue with the Governments of the targeted countries in the field of blue economy.

The working languages of the event will be English with simultaneous interpretation available in Turkish, Georgian, Moldovan and Ukrainian languages will be provided.

More information will soon be available at: http://www.bsec-bsvkc.org/Forms/BlueingTheBlackSeaProject