ACEDP 3rd Joint High-level Round Table Meeting
The third annual meeting of the ACEDP Joint High-level Roundtable (HLRT–3), the premier decision-making body of the program, was held in Beijing on 27 July 2009. The meeting chaired by Ms Octavia Borthwick, Assistant Director General, Asia Regional Branch, AusAID and Mr Zhang Kening, Commercial Counsellor (Director-General Level), MOFCOM. Delegations from the nine Program Core Partners, members from the Environmental Advisory Team (EAT), program coordination office (PCO), and the managing contractor GHD Pty, along with other relevant external experts participated in the event. Also present were His Excellency Dr Geoff Raby, the Australian Ambassador and representatives from the Australian Embassy in Beijing and the Australian Government Department of Climate Change.
The theme for HLRT-3 is Developing and Sustaining Partnerships. Sessions included
· ACEDP Progress Review
· Emerging Policy challenges
· 4th International Yellow River Forum
· At the half-way mark: strategic challenges for ACEDP
· ACEDP Mid Term Review
· 3rd Annual Plan
The meeting also ratified name change of ACEDP from Australia China Environment Development Program to Australia China Environment Development Partnership.
ACEDP 2nd Joint High-level Round Table
The second annual meeting of the ACEDP Joint High-level Roundtable (HLRT–2), the premier decision-making body of the program, was held in Canberra on 8 September 2008. Program owners AusAID and MOFCOM jointly chaired the meeting. Delegations from the nine Program Core Partners, members from the Environmental Advisory Team (EAT), program coordination office (PCO), and the managing contractor GHD Pty, along with other relevant external experts participated in the event. Also present were representatives from the Australian Government Department of Climate Change and the Chinese Embassy in Australia.
Key topics discussed during the meeting included environmental priority areas for the program, ways of engaging Australian agencies in the program, upgrading of activity-level outcomes to program-level policy interventions and dialogues, the improvement of funding mechanisms, and emerging issues such as climate change and the Sichuan earthquake recovery. The ACEDP Progress Report, Policy Landscape Review Report, discussion papers on the program strategic directions and annual planning process were also discussed.
The meeting endorsed these reports and papers in principle. The PCO will amend these papers incorporating comments of delegates and prepare a final version. The programs operations manual will also be updated, and new guidelines for project funding procedure developed.
ACEDP 1st Joint High-level Roundtable
The 1st Joint High-level Roundtable (HLRT – 1) of the Australia China Environment Development Program (ACEDP) was successfully held in Beijing and Canberra on 25th September 2007.
In total 45 participants attended the videoconference: 33 in Beijing and 12 in Canberra. Delegates from the 4 Chinese Core Partner agencies (NDRC, MWR, MEP (then SEPA), SFA), the 5 Australia Core Partner agencies (DEW, DAFF, CSIRO, NWC, MDBC), AusAID, MOFCOM and GHD were in attendance. Based on the outcomes of the roundtable meeting, the PCO prepared the first annual plan of work, which was approved by AusAID and MOFCOM on 13th November 2007. Activities commenced late 2007.