• Integrated planning and budgeting for climate change (in Bangladesh, Indonesia)
• Transparency, benefit-sharing and use of revenues from natural resources (in Mongolia, Philippines) 
• Empowering local actors for pro-poor environment and climate actions through the decentralization process (in Nepal, Bhutan)
• Environmental and social sustainability of private investments in natural resources (in Lao PDR and Myanmar)

​A snapshot of our progress is given below. For more details, please see here. 

(i) Key national planning documents such as Bangladesh’s Sixth and Seventh Five Year Plans, Lao PDR’s 7th and 8th National Socioeconomic Development Plans, Bhutan’s 10th and 11th Five Year Plans all carry greater emphasis of the specific environmental priorities of the poorest and most vulnerable communities. Other national policies and plans in the regions that have improved provisions for these poverty-environment issues include Bangladesh’s long-term Perspective Plan, Mongolia’s National Green Development Policy and Nepal’s Thirteenth Plan. 

(ii)  Nepal (2011) and Bangladesh (2013) were the first countries in the region to undertake a climate public expenditure and institutional review to track climate linked expenditures to better inform policy making, with the support of PEI and other partners. Building on this, Nepal created a Climate Budget Code to sustain the tracking and help plan climate investment in key sectors. In Indonesia, Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Reviews have been undertaken at the provincial level. At the national level, the Indonesian Government has adopted a national budget tagging system for climate change mitigation activities. The Royal Government of Bhutan, with PEI support, undertook a Public Environmental Expenditure Review covering its 10th and 11th Five Year Plans. In 2016, PEI is supporting the Government of Bhutan with other partners such as UNDP and BIOFIN to undertake an integrated review of climate, biodiversity and poverty expenditures and institutions. The aim is to provide Bhutan with a stronger investment case for advancing pro-poor biodiversity and climate agenda and support the formulation and financing of the upcoming 12th Five Year Plan. 

(iii) The Department of Finance of the Philippines is promoting transparency and efficient allocation of natural resource revenues through the Environment and Natural Resource Data Management Tool. This tool serves as a platform that will enable the national government agencies, local governments and other stakeholders to monitor financial information relative to the shares from national wealth of local governments as well as the direct payments made by extractive industries and information on mandatory and other expenditures coming from the local government receipts/collections from extractive industries. The tool has been institutonalized at the local government level and has been rolled out to treasures from 200 local governments that have received shares from national wealth. 

(iv) In Nepal, PEI was instrumental in the development of the Environmentally Friendly Local Governance (EFLG) Framework led by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development and implemented by all local bodies across the country. The EFLG framework sets out to mainstream environment, climate change, disaster and waste management into the local governance system. The Government of Nepal has institutionalized this framework which is expected to benefit poorest and most marginalized groups, particularly women. 

(v) Bhutan pioneered a Mainstreaming Reference Group (MRG) institutionalized by the Prime Minister’s Office through executive order in 2013. The MRG is a cross sectoral task group including officials from local government, environment, planning and finance and commission for women and welfare to integrate gender, environment, climate change, disaster risk reduction and poverty (GECDP) into policies, plans and programmes. Since its inception, the MRG has improved the capacity of sectoral and local officials to address environment climate and poverty gaps in policymaking. At the national level, Bhutan’s National Environment Strategy for Sustainable Development (2015-2025) is one key policy that the Mainstreaming Reference Group has been instrumental in formulating and reviewing. Between 2014 and 2016, local level MRGs have been set up in all districts.

(vi) In Lao PDR, the Government has strengthened its capacity to promote and manage quality investments with PEI’s support through the development and use of tools like the model investment contract that ensures job creation, environmental and social safeguards, a financial model for mining investments, revised investment progress reporting template, corporate social responsibility reporting templates and One Stop Service – guidebook, and EIA/IEE Technical guidelines. The project has significantly contributed to advancing monitoring and compliance of projects at the national and subnational levels. A vital achievement has been the passing of Ministerial Instruction No. 8056/ MONRE that makes IEEs, EIAs and the issuance of the Environmental Compliance Certificate mandatory before investment projects can begin. The Initiative has also been supporting the Ministry of Planning and Investment to develop and manage an investment compliance database that seeks to improve the monitoring of compliance of investors and ensure that environmental and social safeguards are adhered to. The concession compliance investment databasecaptures essential data pertaining to licensing, taxes, duties, MoUs, concession agreement information, data on environmental and social obligations and other related information crucial to management and monitoring the quality of investments.

(vii) In Myanmar, A ‘Negotiation Reference Document’ was developed with PEI support to use as a reference tool for the analysis of international investment treaties, governing foreign investment between countries. Additionally, a financial modeling tool that can assess the feasibility of mining proposals,  including revenues for environmental management and social development, was created for the Department of Mines. 

Through its interventions, PEI is steadily changing the perception of environmental sustainability as an obstacle towards development and demonstrated that investments in sustainability and climate adaptation can lead to reduced poverty and improved livelihoods. By engaging Ministries of Finance, Planning, Investment, Local Development, the project is making strides in demonstrating that environmental sustainability is a cross-cutting concern.