Environment and climate change (E/CC) mainstreaming has surfaced on the political agenda, but still proves quite a challenge because of the fragmented way in which sustainable development issues are tackled. Responsibility for E/CC is often confined within the Ministry of Environment, resulting in scarce coordination with other ministries, lack of data and limited knowledge on the close interconnections with sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
Yet in many developing countries the context is evolving promisingly. Many donors now insist on having E/CC issues addressed in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programmes (PRSPs) under development, while in countries such as Ghana and Zambia sector-wide approaches to the environment have been adopted successfully.
The current efforts of donors and development practitioners and how collaboration can be strengthened in the context of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, was the focus of the 15th meeting of the Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP 15), held in Lilongwe, Malawi (1-5 March 2010), entitled “Climate and Environment Mainstreaming and the Green Economy to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals”. Both the Global Mechanism and its host agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) participated because of the deep relevance of the issues discussed to their mandates.
Development assistance can certainly play a more instrumental role in facilitating E/CC mainstreaming, participants said, highlighting the importance of developing specific evidence (e.g. through case studies and economic valuation studies), to make the case for environmentally sustainable investments, such as sustainable land management (SLM). The need to integrate environment-related benchmarks into performance indicators and link climate/biophysical projections to socio-economic analyses was also underlined. At the political level, it was suggested that champions be identified and that political and institutional mapping be undertaken to maximise convening power.
In terms of the role that donors can play and the approaches and tools they can use for mainstreaming, there was strong support for shifting away from the assessment of negative environmental externalities, which has been the prevailing focus of most development agencies to date - towards strengthening national capacities to demonstrate the real economic rates of return on investment in environmentally responsible growth, based on cost-benefit analyses that include a positive assessment of the direct and indirect ecosystem values that are linked to of the attainment of national development priorities.
The PEP is seen as having a key advocacy role in advancing the green economy agenda at national and international level: not only does it bring the main stakeholders to one table - it is also able to raise awareness on issues that require a coordinated international response. Participants suggested that it could consolidate and disseminate information to facilitate the understanding of the importance of environmental sustainability and the modalities to access relevant funding sources and mechanisms.
The next PEP meeting, tentatively scheduled for mid-February 2011, will provide an opportunity to make a collective input into the PrepCom meeting for Rio+20, scheduled for February 28th-1st March in Washington, DC. The Austrian Development Agency has offered to host PEP 16 in Vienna with a strong involvement of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as well as IFAD and the GM that have offered to consider funding some developing country participants.
For more information:
Mr Simone Quatrini, Coordinator, Policy & Investment Analysis
Tel. +39 06 5459 2154
s.quatrini (at) global-mechanism.org
Tel. +39 06 5459 2154
s.quatrini (at) global-mechanism.org
