The Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO), which was founded in 1999, is a consortium of major oceanographic institutions around the world, represented by their directors.
[3] In March 1999, the Directors of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Southampton Oceanography Centre in the UK, convened a planning meeting in the headquarters of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (IOC-UNESCO) in Paris.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography hosted the first formal meeting in early December 1999, which included senior officials from 17 institutions in 12 countries (as well as representatives of the IOC, the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research (SCOR) of the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and several international scientific programs.
At this meeting, there was agreement on an initial work plan, including development of an advocacy plan for observing systems; participation in processes to secure governmental commitments to fund ocean observing systems; a data interchange demonstration pilot project; and establishment of a clearinghouse for information exchange among POGO members, as well as the broader community.
[5] In its São Paulo Declaration of 2001, POGO drew attention to the world imbalance between Northern and Southern Hemispheres in the capacity to observe the oceans, resulting in its establishment of a capacity-building programme (above).
[6] POGO member institutions have been driving the establishment of OceanSites (coordinated, deep-ocean, multi-disciplinary time-series reference sites), which has made significant progress in recent years.