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? An international arrangement to deal with the problem? Was the MA insert in a clear political Module
context in which the information would catalyze such action?

? A proliferation of sub-global assessments? Would the dissemination of the practice of integrated 3
assessments around the world be an indicator of real success?

? Media attention? Besides being short-term, one has to be careful what the results of this attention
are. In an effort to engage and communicate effectively, the MA developed some metaphors
to elaborate its basic concepts and major findings. The most significant and relevant was that of
“nature as capital” and “ecosystem services”. These were clearly effective, though some of them Abu Dhabi, UAE
were controversial.

At the end the project team concluded that the success for the assessment can be measured by
demand for information and for expertise from a range of places and interests.

3.3.2 Kingdom of Bahrain Strategy to enhance public Awareness and decision-making

Introduction
Kingdom of Bahrain signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) in 1992, ratified it on 28 December 1994, prepared and submitted its Initial National
th
Communication (BINC), in 2005. In the context of undertaking the national communication, there
was a need to build and strengthen the national capacity to integrate climate change concerns into
medium and long-term planning, and to develop programmes related to sustainable development,

research, education, public awareness and training, (GCPMREW,2005). A key output of the BINC was
the formulation of a draft national strategy to raise public awareness, (Khalil, 2004;Zubari et al. 2004).
The goal of the strategy was to enhance the public consciousness and awareness with respect to
the environment and encourage behavioral changes conducive to climate change impacts reduction
measures, adaptations, environmental management and protection.

Such a strategy was essential for moving toward a better understanding of both the potential
impacts on Bahrain from a changed climate, as well as what its youth, civil society groups and
government agencies can do in mobilizing mitigation and adaptation activities. While it resembles a
"communications strategy" the components of Bahrain awareness strategy corresponds to the steps
of an impact strategy:

Step 1: Impact statement: what did the strategy want to see changed as a result of
the assessment?
Bahrain's awareness strategy stated from the beginning that, "a key step towards meeting the
challenges posed by a changing climate is to initiate a national dialogue to raise awareness among

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