(19 July 2018, New York) Participants in the Expert Group Meeting on Promoting Integrated Approaches to Sustainable Development celebrated the impending launch of Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development (2018-2022) at a special event held back-to-back with the High Level Political Forum in New York City, on 19 July 2018. On behalf of UN Environment and UNDP, Jamil Ahmed, Head of UN Environment’s New York Office, joined Elizabeth Mrema, Director of UN Environment Law Division, and Tim Scott, Senior Policy Advisor, UNDP, in welcoming the new four-year programme of Sustainable Development Action.

Servus Amo Sagday, Assistant Director, Poverty Eradication Division, and National Coordinator of the Sustainable Development Goals, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Tanzania, welcomed the new programme on behalf of recipient countries.  

Elfriede (Elfi) A. More, Director for International Environmental Affairs at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism, spoke of her government’s commitment to extending the integrated approach offered through Poverty-Environment Action. 

Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals (Poverty-Environment Action), the successor of Poverty-Environment Initiative, will officially begin its activities in Africa and Asia and the Pacific on 1 September 2018. 

Poverty-Environment Action aims to accelerate poverty-environment mainstreaming by fostering quality investments, especially for least developed countries where the gap in investment is greatest. The new programme will focus on shifting finance and investment towards environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication and improving the environmental sustainability of current investments.

Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals (2018-2022) has been made possible through the generous support of Austria, Norway, Sweden and the European Union.