UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative

What we do

The Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is a global UN-led programmethat supports country-led efforts to mainstream poverty-environment linkages into national development planning. With both financial and technical support, UNDP and UNEP assist government decision-makers to manage the environment in a way that improves livelihoods and leads to sustainable growth. The PEI works with key government partners to raise awareness, influence policy making and strengthen the mainstreaming of poverty-environment into budget processes, sector programmes and sub-national planning. The overall aim is to bring about lasting institutional change and to catalyse key actors to increase investment in pro-poor environmental and natural resource management.  [Read More]

Our definition of poverty-environment mainstreaming

 We define poverty-environment mainstreaming as the stepwise process of integrating poverty-environment linkages into development planning for poverty reduction and pro-poor growth at national, sector and local levels. It involves establishing the links between environment and poverty and identifying policies and programmes to bring about better pro-poor environmental management. It is a multi-year, multi-stakeholder effort targeted at influencing policymaking, budgeting, and implementation. It is based on the need to integrate the valuable contribution of environmental management to improved livelihoods, increased economic security and income opportunities for the poor - which is still largely overlooked in development planning and in the wider debate about development priorities.

Based on experience to date, the PEI recommends a programmatic operational model adapted to national circumstances for successful poverty-environment mainstreaming. The PEI operational model encompasses three phases, each based on a cluster of tasks.  [Read More]

 Our services

 The PEI delivers financial and technical support for capacity building to governments who take on the challenge of mainstreaming poverty-environment linkages into national development processes, including:

• The PEI assists government agencies to consider and integrate poverty-environment linkages in formulating economic and development policies, and helps to engage with these policy processes more effectively.

• The PEI cooperates with government agencies as well as national, regional or internationally professional associations or research institutions in the preparation of assessment studies on poverty-environment linkages to generate country-specific evidence.

• The PEI provides, in close cooperation with national and regional research institutions and experts, support for training aimed at strengthening capabilities and skills of national, local and regional policy-makers on numerous poverty-environment issues.

• The PEI supports communication and advocacy efforts to raise awareness, establish partnerships and communicate effectively the challenges and opportunities of poverty-environment linkages.

• The PEI supports civil society to engage in planning processes, making sure the voices of stakeholders are heard.