Concept Note for the GEF-7 Child Project on "Global Coordination for the Common Oceans ABNJ Program" (the Global Coordination Project).

The marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) comprises 40 percent of the earth’s surface, it covers 64 percent of the surface of the ocean and 95 percent of its volume. The Common Oceans ABNJ Program (2014-2019) was implemented by FAO as a concerted effort to bring various stakeholders to work together to manage and conserve the world’s common oceans.   The Program catalysed important transformational changes and practices in governance, and operational aspects of fisheries and their impact on biodiversity. There is encouraging evidence that these are being mainstreamed by key institutional actors and early trends of positive impact point to improvement in fish stocks health and in bycatch mitigation, starting by the quality and quantity of the information available. However, the Program lacked a proper programmatic approach and missed opportunities to foster synergies among projects and capitalize on knowledge management.