The Executive Committee decided:
(a) To note the report on options for monitoring and assessing the progress of agencies with regard to multi-year agreements contained in document UNEP/OzO.Pro/ExCom/47/54;
(b) To adopt the following options for improving the accuracy of progress reporting on multi-year agreements:
(i) To request the Secretariat and the implementing agencies to continue to review the national implementation carried out in the previous year and to provide additional information in annual implementation plan submissions on disbursements and completed activities, including information on when delayed activities funded by an annual tranche were to be completed. There should also continue to be a comparison of what had been planned in the previous annual tranche and what had been achieved. The disbursement information should be provided cumulatively and data concerning actual or planned commitments could also be provided, as appropriate. The information should also specify how the relevant flexibility clause in the agreement was implemented and/or how to allocate unused funds from previous tranches. In this respect, it should be reiterated that the flexibility clause decision applied only to multi-year agreements approved at or after the 46th Meeting (decision 46/37(j));
(ii) To request the Secretariat to continue to monitor annual tranches in the context of documents on implementation delays and balances, noting that those monitoring tools appeared to have encouraged the removal of impediments to completing projects and activities and so resulted in more timely final disbursement of approved funds to Article 5 countries. To make the process more effective, it could further request implementing agencies to include in funding requests for annual tranches the dates of completion of the tasks associated with those annual tranches;
(c) To request implementing agencies to record phase-out according to the actual and real levels of consumption achieved in annual tranches of multi-year agreements, while noting that in some cases the phase-out might need further explanation and that there should be consistency in the use of the definition of planned and actual phase-out;
(d) That a separate sub-agenda item on delays in the submission of annual tranches and disbursement of funds for tranches and obligations should be included for future meetings; and
(e) To request implementing agencies to inform countries of the need to exceed the phase-out indicated in an agreement where necessary to meet the obligations of the Montreal Protocol, as well as those cases where actual consumption or production data had resulted in changes to the phase-out indicated in the agreements.