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Chairmanship that recommended, among other actions, the establishment of a PP support fund to be
funded by the Arctic states and a recommended operating balance of $1,000,000 USD.
Later, during the Swedish Chairmanship, another report was funded by the Walter and Duncan
Gordon Foundation, the Oak Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation which had two main
recommendations: to establish a task force during the Canadian Chairmanship to propose practical
measures to address the challenges over the long term, including revisiting the idea of a PP core fund;
and for the Arctic states to make short term commitments to support the PPs in all of the activities
of the AC during the Canadian and U.S. chairmanships.
The work which took place during the Canadian Chairmanship began with another study funded by
the Government of Canada which stopped short of making firm recommendations, but again
examined the concept of a PP core fund as well as potential support from AC observers. Following
the release of the report a one day workshop was held in conjunction with the first SAO meeting
October of 2014 in Yellowknife, NWT. The well attended workshop resulted in a decision to establish
a small committee to examine and make recommendations on four areas of focus; 1) Observer funding
of PP working group projects and an examination of potential exceptions to the “50% funding rule,”
2) To consider PP participation at the beginning of AC projects, 3) Enhancing capacity through and
examination of business efficiencies in the AC; and 4) Explore additional AC Secretariat resources to
support the PPs.
Concurrent with the efforts of the Canadian Chairmanship the idea of a PP core fund was again
brought up by an Observer organization, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which not only
suggested establishing such a fund that would be administered by the six PP organizations through
the IPS, but also committed to contributing to such a fund to improve PP capacity.
Subsequently a three day PP support and capacity “summit” was held in March 2015, in Whitehorse,
Yukon. The workshop, which was also funded by the Government of Canada, brought representatives
from all six of the PP organizations together with the idea of examining how a PP core fund would
actually work in practice. Also attending were representatives from the Government of Canada and
the IPS (which organized the workshop). In addition, presentations from potential funders were made
by the Gordon Foundation, Tides Canada (also representing the Arctic Funders Group), and NEFCO
on the ACs Project Support Instrument (PSI). The meeting was very productive and resulted in the
conclusion that two types of support funds were actually needed: 1) A core fund designed to
contribute to PP administrative expenses, and designed to allow a contributor to generally support the
work of all of the PPs with in a simple and transparent way, and 2) A project support fund which
would allow contributors to donate funds to specific areas of interest (for example, Arctic marine
issues), or to PP organizations located in certain geographic areas. The concept was that the core fund
would be distributed to each PP organization equally, but that PPs would apply for project support
funds and that funding decisions would be made by a governing body, potentially the IPS Board. The
meeting also produced a PP Agreement in Principle on the founding of the funds, draft language
regarding the meeting outcomes for the Iqaluit Declaration, and a work plan for moving forward.
Gamble