An assessment was made on the performance of the International Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) established as a Category 2 Centre (C2C) under the auspices of UNESCO, towards the potential renewal of its Agreement which came into force on 15 June 2018.

The Centre is based at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in Hyderabad, India. Through a desk review of the Category 2 Centre (C2C) centre was evaluated and came out with recommendations on renewal of the Category 2 status of the Centre. A retrospective and prospective approach was adopted for the evaluation which resulted in local evidence based analysis, guided by the questions refined by me (the Individual Specialist/Consultant) and also by conducting a personal visit to the Centre.

Based on the ground-truth information to complement the desk study, it was observed that the Centre has achieved 100% of its mandate with relevant contribution to the UNESCO’s Approved Program and Budget (C/5). The quality of coordination and interactions with IOC-UNESCO both at Headquarters and the UNESCO Office in India, as well as with National Commission were found excellent. The Centre developed quality partnerships with government agencies, public and private partners, and local donors. The Centre’s governance, organisational arrangements, management, availability of human resources and accountability was found satisfactory. Financial resources are available for its sustainable institutional capacity through Govt. of India funding (budget allocation) and for some training programmes funding drawn from established partnerships and local donors. The Centre has within its scope of work the autonomy necessary for the execution of its activities and legal capacity.

Based on the information collected, compiled and presented in the Annexes and from the opinion/suggestions provided in the feedback forms and from interviews conducted with the Heads of Institutions, professionals, researchers, trainees and students, it is concluded that the Centre activities are fully in alignment with those set out in the agreement signed by UNESCO and the Government of India. Given the relatively short period of the Centre’s existence and the fact that operations of the Centre during the last few years were hampered by sanctions and pandemic, the reviewer concludes that the Centre’s work is in conformity with the Integrated Comprehensive Strategy for Category 2 Institutes and Centres under the auspices of UNESCO (37 C/Resolution 93 and Document 37 C/18 Part 1 and its Annex), and the Centre was able to meet successfully the goals identified in the Agreement and contributed to achieving ocean related goals presented in SDG 14 through improved knowledge of the marine area and coasts under its terms of reference.

The participation of scientists/students from and outside the regions in training programmes, conferences/seminars and webinars conducted by the Centre brought an improved cooperation and proved to have a great potential for appropriate coordination among organisations and member counties in the region and an opportunity to advance knowledge in marine science and research.

The reviewer recommends that Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences as an International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography as a category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO for IOC global member states (ITCOocean) should continue to maintain the status of Category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO and the Agreement for the continued operation of Centre be renewed for a further period of eight years. Further, UNESCO – IOC may consider/recognise ITCOocean as a “Centre of Excellence” for imparting training on Operational Oceanography, committed to serve the humanity with its incredible infrastructure, excellent collaborations and genuine expertise.

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