On 27 September, the Inception Workshop of “Armenia's Third Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC” (BUR3) Project was organized by the UNDP Armenia Climate Change programme. The project assists the country in the preparation and submission of its Third Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) for the fulfillment of its obligations to the Convention.

The goal of the project is to increase awareness on the climate change issues affecting the country and thus support the mainstreaming of climate considerations into general and sector-specific policies through enhanced accountability and transparency of the reporting.

Among the participants to the workshop were representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, Ministry of Economy, Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia, Scientific Research Institute of Energy, as well as other partners, including the private sector companies, the UNDP staff members and national experts of BUR3 Project.

Welcoming the participants, Diana Harutyunyan, the UNDP Climate Change Programme Coordinator emphasized the importance of close cooperation for the due execution of the Project and towards tackling the future challenges related to the transition to transparency framework under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement.

Astghik Mirzakhanyan, the UNDP National Expert on social vulnerability and gender, presented the Gender related requirements of BUR3 Project and gender marker specifics.

The exchange of ideas on Project implementation and on arrangements for 1^st Year work-plan followed. A number of issues related to gaps identifications and solutions, reliability of data collection, re-formulation of Inter-agency Coordinating Council on Climate Change based on the Government new structure, as well as developing economic and social impact assessment of mitigation measures were discussed.

At the end of the workshop an agreement was reached to:

• Gather focus group meetings for Energy, Agriculture, Solid waste and Wastewater sectors for improvement of administrative procedures;
• Ensure cooperation on gender related indicators and approaches with similar UNDP climate related projects;
• Ensure synergy and close cooperation with the corresponding on-going/planned projects, national authorities, as well as relevant donor assisted projects;
• Arrange separate discussions with relevant donor assisted projects and national stakeholders on FOLU sector data improvement;
• Study the situation with agriculture wastewater data.

Overall, the inception workshop was particularly productive in a way that apart from the objectives and expected results of the project, the scope of cooperation with stakeholders was outlined, as well as the UNDP-GEF reporting and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) requirements were reviewed in details.

Building on the lessons learned and the findings and recommendations from prior Biennial Update Reports and National Communications new ways for improvement of coordination and multi-sectoral cooperation within the Project were identified.

• Agenda