The advancement of science is unthinkable without continuous and efficient exchange of data and information. There is no point in developing scientific programmes and in undertaking scientific research activities unless the research findings can be communicated to the scientific community, and, with increasing importance, to the policy makers and general public. This was clearly stated during UNCED and we can only repeat it here.

 THE IOC REGIONAL APPROACH

The IOC's activities in developing countries are mostly organized in a regional fashion. The IOC's regions include IOCINCWIO (North and Central Western Indian Ocean - 'Eastern Africa'), IOCEA (Central Eastern Atlantic - 'Western Africa'), IOCARIBE (Caribbean and adjacent region), IOCINDIO (Central Indian Ocean), WESTPAC (Western Pacific region), Black Sea and Southern Oceans regions. With the return of South Africa to IOC, the IOCINCWIO and IOCEA regions are gradually expanding to include the southern countries of Africa in a more integrated way than before.

Through Regional Committees or Regional Sub-Commissions, which usually meet every 3-4 years, these regions identify relevant action plans to be carried out during intersessional periods. However, in most cases the Member States in the regions are unable to fully finance the implementation of the workplan and IOC regular funding can only provide seed funding. The IOC Assembly therefore invites Member States to contribute towards the implementation of these activities through contribution to the IOC Trust Fund.

IOC AND CAPACITY BUILDING

The keyword in IOC support to developing countries is capacity building. This includes  to some extent institutional capacity building (through providing equipment), but the majority is concentrated on technical assistance, in particular human capacity building through the organization of training courses, workshops, providing individual travel and study grants, etc. which are part of the IOC's TEMA programme. These activities are always framed within or are followed by  regional scientific research or management programmes to ensure effective output and relevant activities after the training.

PARTNERSHIPS

The IOC is not a donor but a 'facilitator'. The linkage between bilateral projects which concentrate on national infrastructure and human capacity building, and those IOC programmes which are region oriented and concentrate on joint policy definition and human capacity building with a regional perspective make the efforts mutually reinforcing. As oceans do not respect national borders carrying out research and defining policy in a regional framework is obviously essential to manage the coastal areas.

The various scientific programmes are expected to generate substantial amounts of data. It is at this stage that we need to ensure accessibility to these data and information to decision makers at all levels. This will require capacity to collect, quality-control, archive, analyze, repackage and disseminate the data and information at the international, regional, national and local levels. 

This simplified model has been used in the ocean science community to serve users within that same science community. However, UNCED has been the start of a much more management oriented approach in science. The sustainable use and thus management of the coastal zone has become a priority on a global scale. Concerns about climate change such as global warming, desertification etc have also led to strong international coordinating structures and programmes. The pathway illustrated in Figure 1 is changing rapidly into several parallel and interconnected pathways focusing on specific targets. These can be dealt with using a production line model.

The general definition of a production line is a string of consecutive actions or procedures to be taken, starting from the recognition of a product requirement from an end user, via provision of raw material such as in situ measured parameters, through pathways of different treatments onto a final, qualified product delivered to an end user. A pathway can be defined in terms of its key actions or junctions where for instance supplementary data enter the production line from other or external sources. The key functions of a general production line are:

-           provision of field measurements of parameters relevant to the core content of the targeted end product.

-           the collection, storage, quality assurance of these data.

-           the blending of these data with data from other sources, the processing via numerical and  statistical models, value adding, validation, etc.

-           the product formatting and presentation/distribution to the end user.

Experience from operational services shows that this general concept applies to nearly every type of operational service given, and the commonalities appear mostly within data management, quality assurance, and the relations with end users.

Requirements for ocean services may come from governmental authorities, industry, science, and the public. Services and products in response to such requirements may be implemented on a purely national basis, but most frequently there will be need for a background or infrastructural system that can provide both data and expertise in support of  the actual services. This is well known from  atmospheric services like weather forecasting and climate services, where the World Weather Watch and its subsidiary programmes constitute the infrastructure. An intermediary regional function is often required, and consequently, one might talk of three levels of production line, the global, the regional, and the local or national.