Article 13 – Financial resources and mechanism
1. Each Party undertakes to provide, within its capabilities, resources in respect of those national activities that are intended to implement this Convention, in accordance with its national policies, priorities, plans and programmes. Such resources may include domestic funding through relevant policies, development strategies and national budgets, and bilateral and multilateral funding, as well as private sector involvement. 2. The overall effectiveness of implementation of this Convention by developing country Parties will be related to the effective implementation of this Article. 3. Multilateral, regional and bilateral sources of financial and technical assistance, as well as capacity-building and technology transfer, are encouraged, on an urgent basis, to enhance and increase their activities on mercury in support of developing country Parties in the implementation of this Convention relating to financial resources, technical assistance and technology transfer. 4. The Parties, in their actions with regard to funding, shall take full account of the specific needs and special circumstances of Parties that are small island developing States or least developed countries. 5. A Mechanism for the provision of adequate, predictable, and timely financial resources is hereby defined. The Mechanism is to support developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition in implementing their obligations under this Convention. 6. The Mechanism shall include: (a) The Global Environment Facility Trust Fund; and (b) A specific international Programme to support capacity-building and technical assistance. 7. The Global Environment Facility Trust Fund shall provide new, predictable, adequate and timely financial resources to meet costs in support of implementation of this Convention as agreed by the Conference of the Parties. For the purposes of this Convention, the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund shall be operated under the guidance of and be accountable to the Conference of the Parties. The Conference of the Parties shall provide guidance on overall strategies, policies, programme priorities and eligibility for access to and utilization of financial resources. In addition, the Conference of the Parties shall provide guidance on an indicative list of categories of activities that could receive support from the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund. The Global Environment Facility Trust Fund shall provide resources to meet the agreed incremental costs of global environmental benefits and the agreed full costs of some enabling activities. 8. In providing resources for an activity, the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund should take into account the potential mercury reductions of a proposed activity relative to its costs. 9. For the purposes of this Convention, the Programme referred to in paragraph 6 (b) will be operated under the guidance of and be accountable to the Conference of the Parties. The Conference of the Parties shall, at its first meeting, decide on the hosting institution for the Programme, which shall be an existing entity, and provide guidance to it, including on its duration. All Parties and other relevant stakeholders are invited to provide financial resources to the Programme, on a voluntary basis. 10. The Conference of the Parties and the entities comprising the Mechanism shall agree upon, at the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties, arrangements to give effect to the above paragraphs. 11. The Conference of the Parties shall review, no later than at its third meeting, and thereafter on a regular basis, the level of funding, the guidance provided by the Conference of the Parties to the entities entrusted to operationalize the Mechanism established under this Article and their effectiveness, and their ability to address the changing needs of developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition. It shall, based on such review, take appropriate action to improve the effectiveness of the Mechanism. 12. All Parties, within their capabilities, are invited to contribute to the Mechanism. The Mechanism shall encourage the provision of resources from other sources, including the private sector, and shall seek to leverage such resources for the activities it supports.