A Country-led Programmatic Approach to Environmental Mainstreaming:
The PEI delivers financial and technical support for sustained capacity building to governments and other actors who take on the challenge of mainstreaming poverty-environment into national planning processes and tackling the implementation challenges that follow. For example, the PEI assists planning agencies to consider poverty-environmental linkages, including mitigation and adaptation to climate change, in formulating economic policy or helps environment agencies to engage with the policy process more effectively. It also supports the involvement of civil society so that they can fully take part in the process, making sure the voice of the poor is heard. Based on experience to date, successful environmental mainstreaming requires a programmatic approach— adapted to national circumstances. This framework has three phases and there are typically a cluster of tasks needed for each phase— for which a range of analytic or process tools can be utilized.

1. Understanding Poverty-Environment  Linkages and their Importance for Pro-Poor Growth
   
The initial steps are focused on identifying the key poverty-environment linkages as well as the relevant governance and institutional factors that affect policy and planning decision-making. From the outset, the focus needs to be on engagement with the finance and planning agencies responsible for economic development policy, “making the case” on the basis of the contribution of natural resources to poverty reduction and growth, and bringing the environment agency into the policy making process. It is also vital to understand the relevant government, donor and civil society processes that shape how development priorities are set and which institutional actors have the key roles and may be willing to “champion” environment mainstreaming. Combining these, the mainstreaming process can start with raising awareness, stimulating stakeholder engagement and focusing on the key entry points into the economic development planning process.


2. Integrating Environment into National Development Processes
   
The next phase involves the direct engagement with the national economic development planning process in order to ensure environment is integrated into the process and the outcome (such as PRSP or MDG strategy) in support of poverty reduction and growth. This requires an alignment with the governance processes shaping policy and the use of institutional measures such as working groups, stakeholder engagement and donor coordination—leading to identifying appropriate improvements to the resulting PRSP or similar planning framework. These will include strategic and sector-specific targets, options for environmental management programmes in support of those targets and initial measures to integrate poverty-environment indicators in national monitoring systems.  


3. Building Implementation Capacity
   
The final, most sustained phase is focused on developing capacity for government and civil society actors to follow through from successfully influencing the PRSP or similar planning framework to implementation. The implementation options include budget decision making, launching sector strategies and programmes as well as local-level implementation initiatives. Also, capacity is needed for ensuring that environmental investments in support of poverty reduction can be financed through domestic resource mobilization. A sustained effort is needed to embed an understanding of the key poverty-environment linkages into future government decision making and implementation – with the involvement of planning and finance ministries as well as key sectoral agencies.