The Simplified Peer Review Mechanism (SIMPEER) was decided by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean during their 19th Ordinary Meeting (Barcelona Convention, COP19, Athens, Greece, February 2016).
SIMPEER is based on the voluntary and equal participation of the Parties, and seeks to use an agreed methodology for sharing experiences, policies and best practices for the implementation of sustainable development at national level. . This peer review mechanism is also an important incentive for reviewing sustainable development structures and processes at the national level, in particular the National Strategy of Sustainable Development (NSDD) when the country has adopted one.
This review is conducted using the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development 2016-2015 (MSSD 2016-2025) as a reference framework and a regional definition of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The SIMPEER was tested during a pilot exercise where three volunteer countries got involved, namely France, Montenegro and Morocco. The pilot exercise took place during the 2016-2017 intersessional period and the results were submitted to the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development and the Conference of Parties of the Barcelona Convention. The country Parties reaffirmed their interest in this mutual learning exercise and recommended that the process be maintained while:
- Strengthening stakeholder participation in participating countries in the review.
- Improving the links between the SIMPEER and the voluntary national review of the SDGs presented to the UN High Level Political Forum.
- Involve the participating countries in the first exercise to strengthen exchanges between the Mediterranean countries and ensure the continuity of the SIMPEER.
The Plan Bleu was responsible for facilitating the SIMPEER exercise.
Albania, Egypt and Tunisia have voluntarily committed to participate.
This report presents the results of the review of the Albanian sustainable development process. It covers the five key dimensions presented in the methodological report: (i) leadership and ownership; (ii) integration and links between the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental); (iii) governance and stakeholder participation; (iv) resources and means for implementation, and; (v) monitoring and assessment.
