Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

The joint UNDP–UNEP Poverty-Environment Action (2018-2022) (PEA) programme aims at strengthening the integration of poverty-environment-climate objectives into policies, plans, regulations and investments of partner countries to accelerate delivery of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.

Expected results

Poverty-Environment Action will deliver three interrelated outputs:

• Output 1: Development planning, budgeting and monitoring systems integrate environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication

• Output 2: Public finance and investment frameworks incentivize shift in public and private investments towards environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication

• Output 3: SDG implementation and acceleration processes leveraged to scale up use of integrated poverty-environment mainstreaming approaches and Tools

Target group / Beneficiaries

Poverty-Environment Action will operate at country, regional and global levels through a two-pronged strategy of deepening and broadening support to countries on poverty-environment and climate mainstreaming.

At country level, PEA will operate full-fledged country programmes in eight countries: Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal and Rwanda.

Poverty-Environment Action will provide at least 1,000 stakeholders (125 per country) from government ministries and related agencies, international organizations, private sector, research institutions and civil society organizations with direct benefits through the dissemination and use of the programme’s country-level experience in the application of integrated poverty-environment mainstreaming approaches and tools, stepped-up efforts in knowledge management and sharing—including through targeted technical assistance to selected countries, South-South knowledge transfer and cooperation, and proactive engagement with key global and regional actors supporting national SDG implementation and acceleration processes.

PEA is a Joint Programme by UNDP and UNEP. Current donors to the PEA include the European Commission, Sweden, Belgium and Norway.

Activities

Each output comprises a package of key deliverables and policy and technical advisory and capacity-building services to support poverty-environment mainstreaming for the SDGs in line with country demand/needs.

these include i.a.

OP1: Analysis of interlinkages, trade-offs and synergies through integrated modelling, cost-benefit analysis and other methods to support identification, prioritization and sequencing of poverty, environment and climate-related targets; Integration of environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication into UN system support to national SDG planning and implementation efforts; Capacity development to support alignment of priority sector and sub-national planning and related medium-term and annual budgeting processes to increase budget allocations towards environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication; Advocacy and capacity development of non-governmental actors; Strengthening of coordination mechanisms to ensure whole-of-government approaches and coherence between planning and budgeting processes; Strengthening of national statistical systems through integration of poverty-environment indicators and building data collection capacity; identification of options for strengthening legal and regulatory frameworks to support environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication, including through public and private Investment

OP2: Supporting a second generation of environment and climate public expenditure and institutional reviews to strengthen budget formulation processes and advocate for increased budget allocations towards environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication; Contributing to development and implementation of national SDG financing strategies and innovative financing instruments, with a focus on public and private financing flows; Supporting fiscal policies and incentives to advance environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication; review of fiscal and other incentives and options for improving alignment of public investment in support of environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication, and for using public finance to leverage private finance and investment; Strengthen budget literacy of relevant parliament committees and civil society; Promote visibility and policy dialogue with government and development partners to increase funding towards local programmes/projects in support of poverty, environment and climate objectives; Assess and promote fiscal instruments such as tax exemptions and subsidy schemes, other incentives such as guarantees and de-risking instruments, and regulatory measures to shift private investments towards environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication; Support development and implementation of guidelines and tools to steer private sector investment decisions towards sustainability—e.g. investment screening, approval, monitoring and compliance—through environmental and social safeguard systems, impact measurement matrixes, and corporate reporting; Awareness raising and capacity building on inclusive and sustainable business practices for the private sector

OP3: Develop knowledge products on integrated approaches and tools for mainstreaming environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication; Develop a set of training modules on the application of integrated poverty-environment mainstreaming approaches and tools; Advocacy and coordination with development partners engaged in supporting SDG implementation to mainstream the use of Poverty-Environment Action integrated approaches and tools in their programmes and to ensure synergies with similar Projects; Conduct a series of South-South cooperation/learning and capacity-building events on major poverty-environment mainstreaming themes

Context

Poverty-Environment Action builds on the deep experience of the UNDP–UN Environment Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI). Over the past decade, PEI has pioneered integrated approaches to mainstreaming poverty-environment linkages in national development planning and implementation processes—first in support of national efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and now as a model for implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs—along with the other landmark global agreements of 2015 including the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change—bring economic and social development, environment and climate concerns together in a comprehensive and integrated agenda for change. However, environmental sustainability continues to lag behind and is often siloed in national efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda. As environmental degradation and the impacts of climate change continue to worsen across the globe, with the poorest segment of the population bearing the burden of their adverse impact, the case for poverty-environment mainstreaming is as strong as ever.