Within the Asia-Pacific region, the first PEI-supported country programme on poverty-environment mainstreaming was launched in Viet Nam in 2005 with the support from the UNDP PEI programme. A second PEI national programme was launched in Bhutan in 2008, under the joint UNDP-UNEP PEI.
In late 2006, a joint UNDP-UNEP PEI regional team was formed to support the PEI scale-up process in the Asia-Pacific region that brings together staff from the UNEP Regional Office for Asia-Pacific and the UNDP Regional Centres in Bangkok and Colombo. Two regional workshops on Mainstreaming Environment for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Growth were held in March 2007 (Thimphu/Bhutan) and April 2008 (Bangkok/Thailand) which brought together UNDP and UNEP staff from regional and country offices and government officials from a range of countries with an interest in participating in the PEI regional programme. Participants defined PEI programme objectives and discussed how best to support countries in putting into practice innovative strategies for poverty-environment mainstreaming. A recent third regional workshop in June 2009 (Bangkok/Thailand) discussed the state of the art of lessons learnt regarding integrating environment-poverty linkages into national development planning and how to further operationalise the challenges of mainstreaming in the Asia-Pacific region.
Workshop Reports
- 26-27 March 2007, Bangkok/Thailand [Report]
- 9-11 April 2008, Thimphu/Bhutan [Report]
- 13-14 June 2009, Bangkok/Thailand [Report]
Guided by the results of these workshops, the regional team for Asia-Pacific is providing technical support and strategic guidance on mainstreaming poverty-environment linkages into national development planning to selected countries. As of 2009, the regional Asia-Pacific PEI team is providing technical support and funds to PEI national programmes in Bhutan and Lao PDR, and technical support to ongoing programmes in Papua New Guinea and Viet Nam. Governments in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Thailand and East-Timor are currently being assisted in preparing the development of national PEI supported programmes. Scoping missions at the request of government are being planned for Pakistan and Philippines.
For a brief overview about PEI activities in Asia-Pacific please see: [PEI Asia-Pacific brochure]
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The regional PEI Asia team conducts regular thematic regional workshops in cooperation with leading regional professional associations and networks to discuss key poverty-environment topics to assist future work and to improve cross-regional knowledge-sharing. In December 2007, a workshop on Environmental Economics for Policy Makers was held in Bangkok/Thailand which brought together policy makers from Finance, Planning, Agriculture, Environment, Energy and other sector ministries from all the countries in Asia. The workshop, jointly organized with the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), discussed broad linkages between environmental change, poverty, and economic development and explored ways how to raise best awareness among policy-makers. In light of further enhancing the environment economic focus of the Poverty Environment Initative in Asia, PEI Asia in collaboration with the Economy and Environment Programme for South East Asia (EEPSEA) and the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Greater Mekong Subregion Core Environmental Programme organized a second regional thematic workshop on “Economic Development, Poverty Reduction and Environment and Climate Change" in September 2008. The workshop addressed the effect of environmental change to the health and income of the poor; the impact of climate change to the region and countries’ economy; ways to meet the Millennium Development Goals and increase benefits from natural resource use; and mechanisms to mitigate and adapt to climate change without compromising growth. In October 2009, the PEI Asia team discussed jointly with UNCDF and selected UN County teams and experts the role of local government in terms of local public expenditure, local government revenues and local government planning/regulatory/management functions with the objective to develop a guidance note for local governments.
Thematic workshop reports
- Economic Development, Poverty Reduction, and Environmental Change: Environmental Economics for Policy Makers, 10-13 December 2007, Bangkok/Thailand [Report]
- Economic Development, Poverty Reduction and Environment and Climate Change: Environmental Economics for Policy Makers, 17 - 19 September 2008, Bangkok, Thailand [Agenda] [Report] [Presentations] [Photos]
- Local Government 's role in environment, natural resource management and climate change, 5-6 October 2009, Bangkok/Thailand [Report]
The PEI Team for Asia-Pacific includes:
Sanath Ranawana
Sanath Ranawana is a UNEP Senior Programme Officer and jointly manages the Regional PEI programme for Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining UNEP, Sanath worked for the Asian Development Bank as a Natural Resource Economist. He holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from University of Texas/Austin and a Master's Degree in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill/USA.
Paul Steele
Paul Steele from the regional UNDP Environment Practice co-manages the regional PEI programme. Paul has a masters in environmental economics from the University of London. Prior to joining UNDP, Paul worked as economic and environmental advisor for the British and Sri Lankan Governments and has worked for many international organizations.
Additional support to the PEI Asia-Pacific regional programme is provided by the following UNDP and UNEP funded staff:
Panida Charotok
Panida Charotok is a UNDP Programme Assistant and provides programme and financial management support for the PEI regional programme.
Seon-Mi Choi
Seon-Mi Choi is a UNEP Junior Programme Officer specialised in environmental mainstreaming. Before joining the UN, Seon-Mi worked for the Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development of the Republic of Korea on sustainable development planning practices.
Nick Beresnev
Nick Beresnev joined the UNDP Regional Centre Bangkok in August 2009 as a Australian Youth Ambassador for Development. He is specialised in environmental economics and has previously worked in Australia as an economic and public policy consultant, specialising in international trade and forestry in Asia-Pacific.
Jonathan Gilman
Jonathan Gilman works as UNEP Regional Coordinator on Delivering as One UN. He is an environmental economist with more than 10 years programme design and implementation experience with the United Nations, including postings in East-Timor, Indonesia and New York.
Manesh Lacoul
Manesh Lacoul is a UNEP Programme Monitoring and Operations Associate supporting PEI planning, budgeting and monitoring activities.
Saranya Rojananuangnit
Saranya Rojananuangnit joined the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative as Team Assistant in February 2009.
For any questions regarding the PEI Asia-Pacific regional programme please contact us at: facility.unpei@unpei.org
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