1. SCALING UP CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT: BID, BIFA AND SUPPLEMENTARY FUNDING
Melianie Raymond, Senior Programme Officer for Node Development
Alberto González Talaván, Senior Programme Officer for Training
24 October 2016

2. 2015 Capacity Enhancement review
Best practices and lessons learned in preparation for increased capacity enhancement activities
40 workshops mentoring visits
over 1124 participants
Over 551,975 records
by training and engaging new data publishers
Last year I presented the review of past capacity enhancement projects that aimed to prepare us for scaling up capacity enhancement activities
The review documented the impressive efforts of the community through capacity enhancement programmes co-funded by GBIF
It also produced a series of recommendations that have given focus to our work on CE this year
10 new / prototype portals
+ support for node establishment & development

3. GBIF Capacity Enhancement approach
Challenges include:
Expanding network of countries, institutions and people
Rapidly evolving tools and processes
‘Small’ secretariat
“A core capacity enhancement programme, leveraged through supplementary actions, continuing the emphasis on Participant leadership and ownership of projects based on regional and international collaboration”
Countries involved in developing capacity through the ALA collaboration, Francisco Pando, 2015

4. Capacity Enhancement support programme
Targets specific capacity needs identified by Participants
Annual call for proposals supporting collaborative projects between GBIF Participants
Mentoring
Regional training
Advocacy
Documentation
Needs assessment
14 projects have been funded since 2014
Our core programme is the GBIF capacity enhancement support programme that is focused specifically on targeting capacity needs identified by Participants
It provides co-funding to collaborative projects that can combine different types of action
The call for proposals this year has provided funding to four projects (CHECK PERU), bringing the total number of projects that have been supported since the programme started in 2014 to 14.
These projects obviously have the most direct impact on the Participants involved, but often produce materials and best practices that can be reused and adopted more widely.

5. BIFA: Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia
Funded by the Ministry of Environment of Japan
Capacity enhancement, mobilization and use of biodiversity data in the Asian region
2015:
Support to regional nodes meeting
Four collaborative projects to mobilize data and enhance capacity
2016:
Call for proposals now open - €80,000 over two grant types
Large regional event planned for 2017
Last year we received funding from the Ministry of Environment of Japan to establish BIFA.
This supplementary funding was used to support the regional nodes meeting and four collaborative projects in the region. We were able to adapt many of the

6. BID: Biodiversity Information for Development
Funded by the European Union
To increase the availability and use of biodiversity information for research and decision making in the ‘ACP’ countries

7. Capacity self-assessments Capacity enhancement workshops
Main Activities
Documented needs and priorities
Regional meetings
Studies
Calls for proposals
Capacity self-assessments
Capacity enhancement workshops
Strengthened community of practice
Promotion of results
Guiding examples
Data mobilization, strengthened sustainable networks, application of the data
Enhanced capacity for effective mobilization and use of biodiversity information
Ongoing application of the mobilized data

8. Multiplying the Impact of training
“Consider how those receiving training can contribute to training others in future”
The first BID CE workshop has been supported by trainers from our community
Online and Onsite
French and English materials
All trainees have knowledge dissemination plans

9. Certification of skills acquired through training
“Going beyond trainee satisfaction surveys to get a more accurate measure of the real impact of GBIF’s training activities”
Replace with BID badges if available
Strengthening monitoring and evaluation … to allow better tracking of the longer-term impact of capacity enhancement activities

10. Greater visibility of results
“A greater focus on project communications, as well long-term archival of data and products resulting from the projects”
All projects funded this year have a project page available
Links to News, Events, Documents, Resources
Working on simpler linking between datasets and project pages

11. COnclusions
GBIF’s capacity enhancement approach is scalable allowing it to be extended through supplementary funds
We are supporting an expanding number of projects in this area, delivering benefits to the whole community
The approach relies heavily on GBIF community involvement – a true strength of our network – and we need to continue to provide incentives for and give recognition to this engagement

12. SCALING UP CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT: BID, BIFA AND SUPPLEMENTARY FUNDING
Melianie Raymond, Senior Programme Officer for Node Development
Alberto González Talaván, Senior Programme Officer for Training
24 October 2016