The Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing-House (ABS Clearing-House or ABSCH) has been developed as a tool to support the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol. It serves as a means for sharing of information related to access and benefit-sharing arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. In particular, it provides access to information made available Parties, as well as other stakeholders, relevant to the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.

1. Please ensure you are using the latest version of a popular internet browser, such as: 

• For Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
• For Chrome: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/ei
• For Internet Explorer (9+): http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/internet-explorer/download-ie

2. To be able to submit reference records, you will need a CBD Account. Opening an account only takes a few minutes and requires a valid email address.

3. To publish national records, in addition to a CBD Account, you will also need the appropriate role (Publishing Authority or Authorized User) to access and publish information on behalf of your government.

Help using the ABS Clearing-House is always available. The Secretariat is happy to help if you experience any technical difficulties or if you have any questions or feedback on using the ABS Clearing-House. To contact  the Secretariat, please  e-mail us at absch@cbd.int or use the live chat help desk.  The live chat help desk can be accessed by clicking on the green question mark located in the bottom right corner of the page for immediate interaction with Secretariat staff for technical support and guidance.

Article 22 of the Nagoya Protocol provides that Parties shall cooperate in the capacity-building, capacity development and strengthening of human resources and institutional capacities to effectively implement the Protocol in developing country Parties, including through existing global, regional, sub regional and national institutions and organizations. In this context, Parties should also facilitate the involvement of indigenous and local communities and relevant stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations and the private sector. 
Article 22, paragraph 6, provides that information on capacity-building and development initiatives at national, regional, and international levels should be provided to the ABS Clearing-House with a view to promoting synergy and coordination on capacity-building and development for ABS. 
Having all information on capacity-building projects and initiatives available in one database can provide opportunities for coordination among actors involved in capacity-building in the same geographical area or covering similar thematic issues and to learn from each other experiences. It can also help to identify and address gaps and overlaps in the coverage of capacity-building initiatives.

To sign in, click the “SIGN IN” link located at the very the top right corner of the page, and enter your email and password.  If you have forgotten your password please click the following link to reset it: accounts.cbd.int/password/reset. If you don’t have a CBD account, you can create one at: accounts.cbd.int/signup

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Once you have signed in, click on “Submit” in the main navigation bar and you will be taken to your Record Management Centre Dashboard. 

Dashboard

The Dashboard provides an overview of the shared national records for your country. Click on the name of the type of record you would like to edit or add to the ABS Clearing-House. 

Open a submission form

Next, click the "Add New" button or click on the "Edit" icon associated to the record you would like to update to open the submission form.

Submission form controls

Please fill in the submission form and complete all fields. Mandatory fields are indicated with an asterisk(*). The highlighted button shows you what step of the submission process you are currently on.  Clicking on the "Introduction" tab will give you important information on how to complete the form. Clicking on the "Review" tab will allow you to preview the record and highlight the mandatory fields that need to be filled before it is possible to publish the record. The record can be saved as a draft at any time. Frequently saving of records is recommended.

Submission language(s)

It is possible to introduce information one or more of the six official UN languages. The first question on each submission form asks you to select the languages you wish to submit the record in (at least one language needs to be selected). 

Website language

If you wish to view to the submission form in another language, you may change the language of the website by selecting one of the UN languages from the drop down menu located at the very top right hand corner of the screen. 

The key sections of the Capacity-Building Initiative form are General information, Detailed information, Information on funding, Capacity-building outcomes, and Information on the thematic coverage of the initiative.

General Information

In this section, please enter the title and the project number (or identifier). This information will help to identify the record when users of the ABS Clearing-House are searching for Click on ‘Capacity-Building Initiatives (CBI)” Your published, draft, and requested records will be displayed on the counters here information. You will also be asked to enter the geographic scope by selecting each of the countries or regions covered by the initiative from the list. 

Indicate the “Type of capacity-building initiative“ by selecting "a" if the entire project or programme is for building capacity in ABS, or "b" if the ABS-related activity/component is part of a broader non-ABS project. Please provide the title in the text box and further details about the broader project/initiative. If the activity is not part of a project or programme, select "c".

It is important to identify the “Status of the document“ by selecting whether: (a) the project or initiative is still a proposal but has not yet been approved by donors; (b) the project concept has been officially approved by donors, in principle, and is being developed into full proposals/project documents (this is a common step for GEF projects, for instance); (c) the initiative is on-going and currently under implementation; or (d) the initiative has been completed. You can edit the record to reflect the changes in the status of the initiative to keep the information in the ABS Clearing-House up-to-date without needing to resubmit the record.

Next indicate the “Timeframe“ of the initiative by entering a start and end date or by entering the duration of the initiative. If entering a specific duration, please add the appropriate qualifier (days, months, or years).

Moving forward, check the necessary boxes in order to identify the agency(ies) that are implementing, executing and/or collaborating in the initiative.

Note: In some cases, an agency could play both the implementing and executing roles. If that is the case, please select both boxes. You will be prompted to add an organization based on your selection. Please add all relevant agency(ies) or organization(s) involved to ensure that your record has complete information. 

Please add a link and/or add a file as a link to “the project document or document describing the initiative“ that is being uploaded to the ABS Clearing-House. Please use the “Add file” button to attach the file containing the capacity-building initiative to the record. The file will then be stored in the ABSCH for users to download. It is preferable to attach the relevant file to the record when available, instead of a link, in order to avoid problems with broken links, as web pages change.

Detailed information

Under the “Detailed information” section, please provide a concise summary or abstract not more than 300 words, describing the goals and objectives of the initiative. This information will be used to describe the initiative to those searching information on the ABS Clearing-House. 

Enter in the target group(s)/beneficiary of the capacity-building initiative. For example, if your project is meant to build the capacity of government officials , please select Government.

Next, you will need to select the “Category(ies) of capacity-building activities“ by checking the corresponding boxes. Very often, initiatives use a variety of activities to build the capacity of beneficiaries. In this regard, it is important to select all applicable boxes.

Under “Information on funding“, first you will need to identify the type of funding source(s). You can select all boxes that are applicable to the initiative being registered. You can also provide information on the organisation(s) providing the core funding for the initiative and the organisation(s) providing co-financing. If the corresponding organization(s) can’t be found in the list, click on “Add new organization“ and fill in the required information in the form to add the organization. Next, please enter the total budget of the initiative in US dollars.

You may have to add a new organization if you have not already added the organization to your contact library

Capacity-building outcomes

In the next section, please provide a short summary of the main achievements of the initiative, including those related to advancing gender equality in achieving the objectives of the Convention and its Protocols, if applicable (max 200 words). If you have relevant materials, tools or reports on the initiative, please attach a copy or provide a web link to the document(s). Please provide a short summary of the best practices and lessons learned (max 500 words). Sharing information on best practices and lessons learned helps ensure that those involved in the design and implementation of future projects can learn from existing initiatives. 

In addition to contributing to Aichi Target 16 on the Nagoya Protocol, some Capacity-Building Initiatives can also contribute to other Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Please, select which Aichi Biodiversity Target(s) are related to the resource. 

Information on the Aichi Biodiversity Targets can be found at: https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/. 

Keywords for facilitating online searches

In the next section, please indicate the key areas, for this initiative, that have been identified by the Strategic Framework for capacity-building and development to support the effective implementation of the Nagoya Protocol, by checking the corresponding boxes. More information on the Key Areas of the Strategic Framework, under decision NP-1/8, can be found here: https://www.cbd.int/decision/np-mop/default.shtml?id=13408

 Collecting this information will allow anyone interested to search all available projects and initiatives supporting, for instance, the development of a domestic policy framework on ABS or the development and implementation of pilot ABS agreements. 

The final part of the submission is “Additional Information” and “Notes”. Please include any other relevant information in these sections. 

Once you have completed all the fields, click on the “Review” tab to check that all the mandatory fields have been properly filled. On this tab a message will highlight any missing fields that need to be filled before it is possible to publish the record. You may click on the missing field to go to that field in the submission form.

When all the mandatory fields have been filled correctly, the message “the document is valid” will appear.  You are almost done! The next and final step is to publish the record.

To publish a record, click on the "Publish" tab. If you record contains any errors you will be redirected back to the Review tab until the errors are correct.  Please note that you can save the record as a draft at any time. 

If you are the Publishing Authority, you see the green “Publish”  button and will be able to publish the record directly on the ABS Clearing-House.

If you are a National Authorized User, you will see the red “Request Publication” button.  Clicking this button will automatically send a request to the Publishing Authority to verify and approve your submission before it will become publicly available on the ABS Clearing-House.