CD cover of the Electronic Declarations tool for National Authorities (EDNA)
States Parties shared their experiences of using EDNA with the Secretariat and discussed ideas and proposals for its future development.
On May 27 the Technical Secretariat arranged the first User Group Forum (UGF) for users of the Electronic Declarations tool for National Authorities (EDNA). This meeting provided a forum for representatives of States Parties to share their experiences of using EDNA with the Secretariat and discuss ideas and proposals for its future development.
The occasion also provided the Secretariat with an opportunity to brief States Parties on recent developments with regard to the submission of Article VI declarations in electronic form and in particular its experience of electronic declarations created using EDNA. The Technical Secretariat also informed participants about the ongoing work with the next version of EDNA, Version 2.0.
The EDNA UGF is intended to become a regular event for the dialogue between States Parties and the Technical Secretariat on the development and enhancement of EDNA. The next UGF is tentatively planed for May/June 2010. In addition to that there will be opportunities to meet with the Secretariat team developing EDNA during the National Authorities Days in November this year.
Trends in Electronic Declarations
The Secretariat gave a short overview on the developments of the submission of electronic declarations following the release of the first version of EDNA.
For the Annual Declaration of Past Activities 2007 (ADPA2007), seven declarations were received in electronic format (original or electronic copy). This accounted for 26% of all declared Article VI facilities.
For the submission of ADPA 2008, the number of Article VI declarations submitted in electronic format had increased to 21 accounting for 65 % of all declared facilities and 12 of these declarations had been prepared using EDNA. The electronic declarations prepared with EDNA required no adjustment before being up-loaded electronically to the Verification Information System (VIS). Files from other sources also required less adjustment than during previous years indicating that some of the initial technical problems with such software have been overcome.
State Party experience of EDNA
The comments from States Parties received during the UGF and through other channels were all largely positive. EDNA is seen as user friendly and meets the requirements of the users in the National Authorities. The structure for creating declarations provided by EDNA and the inbuilt validation tool is seen as an effective means to enhance the quality of declarations.
One common request is for a function in EDNA that allows for the Aggregate National Data (AND) to be automatically compiled from the individual entries for facilities and import/export entities such as traders, the Secretariat is aware of this request and is currently working on incorporating this function into the new version of EDNA (see below).
EDNA Version 2.0
The Technical Secretariat gave a short presentation on the new version of EDNA, Version 2.0, which is planned to be released at the National Authority days in November this year. In addition to OCPF plant sites and AND declarations, it will also support the declaration of Schedule 2 and 3 plant sites. This new version will provide an option for the automatic aggregation of AND from the data entered for the individual plant sites. It will also allow for the entering and storing of information from non-declared plant sites below threshold or import/export data from entities such as customs or traders for the purpose of compiling AND. The upgrade from Version 1.x of EDNA will be automated and there will be no loss of data when upgrading.
As was done for the introduction of the first version of EDNA, the Technical Secretariat will provide training on the software to personnel from the National Authorities. This is planned to take place in the margins of CSP-14. Information on how to receive a copy of the new version of EDNA and registration for the training will be provided well in advance.
Contact Information
For enquiries, please contact the Technical Secretariat through the dedicated email address vis@opcw.org or get in touch directly with Steve Wade, Project Manager VIS or Mozafar Ibrahim, Software Developer ISB/SDS.