The Mediterranean countries have worked together within the framework of a "foundational TDA/SAP" GEF project to set priorities related to the transboundary problems affecting the LME and have jointly agreed on what interventions are needed to address such priorities through two Strategic Action Programs (SAPs):

• The Strategic Action Program to Address Pollution from Land-Based Activities (SAP MED); and
• The Strategic Action Program for the Conservation of Mediterranean Marine and Coastal Biological Diversity (SAP BIO). The two SAPs are now ready for implementation, consistent with the GEF Operational Program 9 in the International Waters focal area, and a third instrument, the ICM Protocol to the Barcelona Convention, is under negotiation. In order to accelerate on the ground implementation of the SAPs, and assist with the early implementation of the ICM Protocol, a collective effort for the protection of the environmental resources of the Mediterranean - the Strategic Partnership for the Mediterranean Sea Large Marine Ecosystem - is being proposed by UNEP, the World Bank, all the countries of the Mediterranean and a number of international cooperation Agencies, IFIs and bilateral and multi-lateral donors. The proposed Partnership, which builds upon the model and lessons learnt from the GEF Black Sea/Danube Partnership, is a basin-wide multi-stakeholder collaboration with the main objective to assist basin countries in implementing reforms and investments in key sectors that address transboundary pollution reduction, biodiversity decline, habitat degradation and living resources protection priorities identified in the two SAPs.

The Partnership will serve as a catalyst in leveraging policy/legal/institutional reforms as well as additional investments for reversing degradation of this damaged large marine ecosystem its contributing freshwater basins, habitats and coastal aquifers. The proposed Strategic Partnership will consist of the two individual components, which fit together to assist the countries in a collaborative manner according to each agency’s comparative advantage:

(i) Regional Component: Implementation of agreed actions for the protection of the environmental resources of the Mediterranean Sea and its coastal areas (UNEP)

(ii) Partnership Investment Fund for the Mediterranean Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (World Bank). The main objective of the Regional Component under the Strategic Partnership is to promote and induce policy, legal and institutional reforms aimed at reversing marine and coastal degradation trends and living resources depletion, in accordance with what had been agreed by the countries in the SAP MED and SAP BIO to be reflected in their NAPs.

In doing so, the Project will also strengthen the enforcement, assessment and monitoring capabilities of the national and local institutions; and establish technical mechanisms for supporting transboundary pollution prevention and abatement originating in the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea towards the Environmental Quality Objectives (EQO’s) identified in the Mediterranean TDA, which broadly are:

• Reduce the impacts of LBS of pollution on the Mediterranean marine environment and human health;
• Reach sustainable productivity from fisheries; and
  
• Preserve the coastal and marine biodiversity (ie. habitats, ecosystems, biological taxa and genetic resources).