BLOSSOM TIME
The UNDP–UN Environment Poverty-Environment Initiative 2016 Annual Report
Poverty-Environment Initiative 2016 countries Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan
Latin America and the Caribbean Dominican Republic Guatemala Paraguay Peru
Africa
Benin Burkina Faso Kenya Malawi Mali Mauritania Mozambique Rwanda Tanzania
Asia and the Pacific Bangladesh Bhutan Lao People’s Democratic Republic Indonesia Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Philippines
Blossom Time The UNDP–UN Environment Poverty-Environment Initiative 2016 Annual Report
Knowledge is like a garden; if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested. – AFRICAN PROVERB
Preface
I
n 2016, the penultimate year of the joint United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)–United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) Poverty-Environment Initiative, we are witnessing the blossoming of the results of the Initiative while preparing the ground for new seasons of growth and change. This report captures our 2016 achievements as we gather the fruits of a more than decade-long effort to sow environmental sustainability into the field of development. The year brought to new heights sustainable and equitable development for countries determined to sustain their natural capital and overcome poverty. We have worked with governments in the developing world to demonstrate how the integrated approach to reducing poverty and ensuring sustainable use of the environment and natural resources go hand in hand. With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the demand from countries for such an integrated approach has been heard throughout the global development community. The unique partnership of UNDP and UN Environment, demonstrated by the
NIK SEKHRAN, Director for Sustainable Development Bureau for Policy and Programme Support United Nations Development Programme
Poverty-Environment Initiative, has become a leading example of how multiple social and environmental objectives can be secured by breaking down the silos of decision-making within government. The Initiative enriches environmental governance for the benefit of the poorest by providing a wide array of strategies, techniques and tools which governments can integrate into policy and implementation. The Initiative exemplifies as well how strengthening the voices of those least often heard in the halls of power can bring benefits across the wide spectrum of society, from smallholder farmers suffering from climate stress to marginalized communities of waste pickers and urban slum dwellers. In 2016, the Poverty-Environment Initiative supported 23 countries in four developing regions of the globe. This report highlights the work of the joint Global Programme to improve climate resilience of the poorest and to effectively implement pro-poor environment practices and a just transition to an inclusive green economy. It presents the kernel of a more effective means to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and should draw a wide audience to witness the “tree of sustainability’s” future growth.
METTE L. WILKIE, Director Ecosystems Division United Nations Environment Programme
Achievements across the sustainable development spectrum National and local policies and plans
Sectoral policies and plans
The Poverty-Environment Initiative has produced bountiful results through its systematic and integrative method of mainstreaming poverty-environment objectives into the heart of government policy and programmes. So far, in the 28 countries where it has been active since 2008, the Poverty-Environment Initiative has reaped: ll 47 national and 4,428 local policies and plans in 22Â countries
Monitoring systems
Budgeting and expenditure processes
ll 108 sectoral policies and plans in 17 countries ll 33 monitoring and evaluation systems incorporating poverty-environment indicators in 17 countries ll 67 national budgeting and expenditure processes in 14 countries
Bhutan instils poverty-environment and gender and climate objectives countrywide
Malawi aims for policy coherence and sustainability in natural resources
The Poverty-Environment Initiative helped form a multisectoral mainstreaming group at the central government level in 2010 and has since expanded this to the local level. In 2016, each of 20 districts established a local mainstreaming reference group. Action plans now ensure that objectives for gender, environment, climate disaster responses and poverty are reflected in national policies and plans and incorporated at the district level.
Malawi applied approaches and tools to bring povertyenvironment policy and budget coherence across the wildlife, irrigation, mining and agriculture sectors. Malawi modestly increased its budget allocation in 2016 by applying the revised budget guidelines. The Office of the President has ensured compliance with the guidelines, which helps balance agriculture production—key to poverty reduction—with environmental conservation.
Peru adopts national solid waste management plan with key poverty-environment objectives
Tajikistan integrates environmental sustainability and gender
Peru’s new National Plan for Solid Waste Management, crafted with support from the Poverty-Environment Initiative, addresses several poverty-environment objectives, including the recovery and restoration of environmental, social and economic spaces degraded by dump sites; and measurement and monitoring of impact on sound environmental management, poverty reduction and the inclusion of women and youth empowerment.
Tajikistan’s president has approved the National Development Strategy (2016–2030), which—for the first time—addresses environmental sustainability and gender issues as cross-cutting objectives, a central ambition of the Poverty-Environment Initiative. Poverty-environment objectives are now integrated in 64 of the country’s 68 districts, with 94 percent of district development plans including such indicators.
Recycling for life An estimated 4 million people make their living from informal recycling in Latin America and the Caribbean. Working in hazardous and unsanitary conditions, they make an important environmental contribution in communities that lack the means to undertake comprehensive solid waste management. In Arequipa, Peru, three-quarters of the recyclers working in the formal and informal sectors are women. The Poverty-Environment Initiative, with support from United Nations Volunteers, is helping transform the relationship here among waste collectors, communities and the environment. This initiative forms part of Peru’s Integrated Solid Waste Management for Sustainable Development and Inclusion programme, which is supported by
the Poverty-Environment Initiative, the Ministry of Environment and the Municipality of Arequipa, in cooperation with the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion and the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations. In total, the project has been working with 105 women from 10 associations in Arequipa. Through this mutually beneficial arrangement, residents sort their garbage and have it collected from their doors, while women no longer must travel to the informal dumps on the outskirts of the city to sort waste in hazardous and unsanitary conditions.
THE AREQUIPA PROCESS… Raising public’s environmental awareness
Influencing policy
Improving associations’ competitiveness
Establishing new collection routes…
Generating valueadded in recyclable materials Building capacity …and a collection center
Investing in what counts—and investing in people Working with UNDP’s Governance of Climate Change Project, the Poverty-Environment Initiative undertook a Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review in two Indonesian provinces, which helped in prioritizing the needs of families that are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Local public expenditures on climate have since increased, as reviews for 2010–2013 at the local level have shown. For example, there has been a 475 percent increase in the agriculture and forestry sector in Jambi Province and a 242 percent increase in the energy and transportation sectors in Central Java.
+ 242%
+ 475%
With support from the Poverty-Environment Initiative and the UN Capital Development Fund, Mali has integrated climate change into national planning processes. In the water, environment, urbanization and state land sectors, it has increased its budget proposals for povertyenvironment activities by 13.8 percent between 2016 and 2017. At the subnational level, poverty-environment objectives are now included in the district development plans of Djéguéna and Sido. In collaboration with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, capacity-building sessions for staff from 15 local governments, women and youth organizations, farmers and traditional community and religious leaders reached 649 men and 411 women in the two districts.
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The Poverty-Environment Initiative crafts, tailors and shares a variety of practical tools—including guidelines, accounting mechanisms, expenditure review methodologies, indicators, trainings and knowledge products—to help countries achieve results. Our internationally recognized knowledge products are models for the integrated achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Initiative has made its mark globally:
ered lives. Empow nations. Resilient
ll At the February 2016 UN Environment Global Forum on Integrated Approaches to Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals at National and Regional Level, where the Initiative presented its integrated approach to SDG implementation ll At the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in May 2016, where the UN System-Wide Framework of Strategies on the Environment was launched, to which the Initiative contributed a case study ll At the July 2016 High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, where the Initiative signed and launched the Poverty Environment Partnership’s Getting to Zero call to action
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ll At the September 2015 UN Summit on Sustainable Development, where its flagship handbook was cited in an interactive dialogue
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Growing the tree of sustainability HARVESTING: Transforming institutions and creating policy coherence ❀ Increasing public and private investments in Sustainable Development Goal implementation ❀ Creating new legal frameworks and compliance mechanisms ❀ Fostering community participation ❀ Strengthening social inclusion and increasing legitimacy WATERING THE SEEDS: Crafting communication strategies ❀ Advocacy through briefing notes and policy papers ❀ Conducting trainings and building capacity PLANTING THE SEEDS: Uncovering economic, ecological and social evidence ❀ Conducting policy research ❀ Undertaking cost-benefit analyses ❀ Integrated ecosystem assessments ❀ Legal, political, economic and poverty and environmental assessments ❀ Strategic environmental and social impact assessments
BLOSSOMING: Improving understanding of povertyenvironment-climate nexus ❀ Breaking down sector silos ❀ Nourishing integrated policy implementation ❀ Institutionalizing government coordination mechanisms ❀ Going beyond gross domestic product measurements ❀ Data collection for informed decision-making ❀ Improving capacity for poverty-environment mainstreaming ❀ Scaling up globally through South-South exchange TENDING THE BRANCHES: Sensitizing monitoring systems to mainstreaming objectives ❀ Revising national budgeting and financial management processes ❀ Adopting private investment guidelines and sustainable investment contracts PUTTING DOWN ROOTS: Consulting with the poor, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders ❀ Creating poverty-environment indicators ❀ Developing planning and budgeting guidelines ❀ Instilling poverty-environment objectives in policies and in development and investment plans ❀ Defining environmental, social and economic safeguards
Integrated approach makes for sustainable development The success of the Rubaya green village in Rwanda, completed in 2011 and consisting of 43 houses and a school, and featuring rainwater harvesting, a water storage and supply system, and a biogas system providing clean fuel for households and manure for farming, led the government to require all districts to have at least one green village. Green villages improve food security, increase household income, decrease deforestation and save each household an average of nearly three hours per day in water collection and two hours per day in firewood collection. They also use terracing to reduce erosion, improve agricultural productivity and increase resistance to natural disasters. Today, there are 7 such villages, and the PovertyEnvironment Initiative in 2016 completed a cost-benefit analysis to project the impact of 30 green villages.
USD 48 million estimated investment
Indirect economic benefits ≈
0.8 %
increase in gross domestic product
3,000 beneficiaries
0.71 %
estimated decrease in Rwanda’s extreme poverty rate
USD 21 million estimated net benefits
Institutionalized approaches and tools In 2016, Malawi institutionalized povertyenvironment approaches and tools previously developed to ensure poverty-environment policy and budget coherence across several sectors and districts in which the Poverty-Environment Initiative worked. This included a detailed annex on environmental sustainability and natural resource mainstreaming in Malawi’s Guide to Executive Decision-Making to show how decisionmakers and policymakers can better integrate pro-poor and sustainable environmental management into all stages of the public planning cycle. In 2016, Malawi’s wildlife, irrigation, mining and agriculture sectors used the annex when drafting their policies and sector strategies. The guide has thus helped ensure a balance between agricultural production—vitally important for poverty reduction—and environmental conservation in the national agriculture policy.
Increased budget allocation
Executive decisionmaking guide
Sector planning
District guidelines
Country Growth Strategy
Training Compliance
Public sector investment
Balance
Growing use
Civil society monitoring Budget guidelines
Technical support
Capacity building
2016 financial data Total 2016 expenditures against global funds from donors amounted to approximately USD 6.1 million. Total expenditure in 2016 against all resources was almost USD 12 million. Thus, every dollar from global donors catalysed nearly USD 1 for poverty-environment mainstreaming at the country, regional and global levels. The Poverty-Environment Initiative currently enjoys financial support from the Governments of Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 2016, total contributions from Donor contributions USD 5,560,456 these donors amounted to USD 7.218 million, resulting UN Environment contributions USD 1,895,037 in a USD 11.9 million UNDP contributions USD 2,829,903 programme in 2016, including core Catalytic contributions USD 547,334 contributions from UNDP and UN Environment, Government contributions USD 1,033,526 catalytic contributions and government contributions.
Total 2016 expenditures from all sources USD 11,866,256
Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals SDG 17: PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS
SDG 15: LIFE ON LAND
SDG 1: NO POVERTY
EGRATION INT
TOOLS
PROGRAMMATIC APPROACH FOR POVERTY-ENVIRONMENT MAINSTREAMING
CO H
ERENCE
RE COHE NCE
SDG 13: CLIMATE ACTION
SDG 10: REDUCED INEQUALITIES
FINANCE
SDG 14: LIFE BELOW WATER
In January 2018, a new 5-year global programme, Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals, will be launched as the successor to the Poverty-Environment Initiative. It will help countries:
SDG 2: ZERO HUNGER
SDG 5: GENDER EQUALITY
ll Strengthen and implement more coherent policies, plans, regulations and investments to support poverty-environment objectives ll Promote quality investments that engender environmental sustainability, climate resilience and livelihoods, contributing to poverty elimination ll Employ innovative approaches and tools adopted by regional and global institutions in support of poverty-environment nexus for implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals
The Poverty-Environment Initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) is a global UN effort that supports country-led efforts to mainstream poverty-environment linkages into national development planning. The Poverty-Environment Initiative provides financial and technical assistance to government partners to set up institutional and capacity-strengthening programmes and carry out activities to address the particular poverty-environment context. Blossom Time: The UNDP–UN Environment Poverty-Environment Initiative 2016 Annual Report is also available online at www.unpei.org. © 2017 UNDP–UN Environment Produced by the UNDP–UN Environment Poverty-Environment Initiative The author would like to acknowledge all Poverty-Environment Initiative colleagues at the country, regional and global levels for their contributions to this report. Writer and project coordinator: Michael Stanley-Jones, with contributions from Kayla Keenan and Victoria Luque, under the guidance of the PovertyEnvironment Initiative Co-directors Anne Juepner and Isabell Kempf Edited by: Lance W. Garmer Design and layout: Nita Congress Cover, art and infographics by: Nita Congress and Bonnie Stephens, bsimpledesign.com Based on a concept by: Victoria Luque All dollars referred to in this publication are USD, unless otherwise specified. This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-profit purposes without special permission from the copyright holder, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. The UNDP–UN Environment Poverty-Environment Facility would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication that uses this publication as a source. No use of this publication may be made for resale or for any other commercial purpose whatsoever without prior permission in writing from UNDP and UN Environment. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNDP and UN Environment. The designation of geographical entities in this report, and the presentation of the material herein, does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the publisher or the participating organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the contents of this publication are factually correct and properly referenced, UNDP and UN Environment do not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this publication, including its translation into languages other than English.
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Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation
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UK Department for International Development
Poverty-Environment Initiative Empowered lives. Resilient nations.
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