Mainstreaming Environment and Climate for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development: The Interactive Handbook to Strengthen Planning and Budgeting Processes  updates the Poverty-Environment Initiative’s 2015 publication for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainabel Development. The Interactive Handbook improves discovery and navigation of the original’s contents, offering ‘Key concepts’, ‘Topics’, ‘Key messages’, ‘Takeaways’, ‘Multimedia’, ‘Tools’, ‘Results’, a learning ‘Activity’ for small group discussion, and ‘Further reading(s)’ from each substantive chapter of the 2015 publication.  Also included is a new detailed ‘Index’ with page references to help users find specific topics addressed in the Handbook.

This report captures Poverty-Environment Initiative’s 2016 achievements, as we gather the fruits of a more than decade-long effort to sow environmental sustainability into the field of development. It graphically highlights the work of the joint UNDP–UN Environment global programme to improve climate resilience of the poorest and to effectively implement pro-poor environment practices and a just transition to a green economy, and presents the kernel of a more effective means to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.   

Articulando la Política Social y Ambiental para el Desarrollo Sostenible

Esta publicación identifica puntos de entrada para integrar la sostenibilidad ambiental y objetivos de protección social. Su objetivo es contribuir a una mejora de las herramientas de políticas, brindando ejemplos prácticos de enfoques integrados para la implementación de la Agenda 2030 en América Latina y el Caribe, enfocándose en el nexo entre pobreza y ambiente.  El documento presenta cuatro ejemplos específicos de la región: el Programa Bolsa Verde de Brasil, Alianza Manos al Agua de Colombia, el Sistema Único de Beneficiarios de República Dominicana, y el Proyecto Estrategico de Seguridad Alimentaria de México. El documento resalta ejemplos concretos de herramientas y modelos existentes en América Latina y el Caribe que generan impactos positivos combinados en la reducción de pobreza, la protección social y la sostenibilidad ambiental.

Livelihoods, poverty reduction efforts and economic growth in Africa are highly dependent on the quality and availability of natural resources, and are thus extremely vulnerable to degradation of those resources and to climate change. Development efforts hence need to equally embrace economic, social and environmental sustainability as emphasized in the recently adopted ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ as well as ‘Agenda 2063 – The Africa We Want’. Several countries have made notable progress since 2005 through their partnership with the Poverty-Environment Initiative of UNDP and UN Environment. The work that African governments and the Initiative have done together offers many lessons on how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and Africa 2063 goals within national contexts. The examples provided in this publication illustrate how policymakers, government staff and development practitioners can start putting in place what the former UN Secretary General called “a practical twenty-first century development model that connects the dots among the key issues of our time: poverty reduction; job generation; inequality; climate change; environmental stress; water energy and food security.”

The Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI), a joint UNDP-UN Environment global programme, is designed to improve the ability of governments to govern natural resources better, reduce poverty, promote environmental sustainability and meet the intertwined challenges set by the Sustainable Development Goals. Poverty-Environment Initiative is the only global development programme designed to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to address and manage environmental risks and opportunities through development planning. In 2015, the Initiative focused its technical and financial support in 24 countries: Armenia, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Rwanda, Tajikistan and Tanzania. PEI also provided technical advisory services to Botswana, Thailand and a range of UN and non-UN development partners. The Global Programme is also engaging with countries on the 2030 Agenda and a transition towards an inclusive green economy. Indeed, it is clear that grounding the SDG agenda at the regional, national and local levels will require integrated approaches—such as those pioneered by the Poverty-Environment Initiative—to mainstream the Sustainable Development Goals into countries’ national development strategies, local development plans and budget resource allocations.

This Handbook is designed as guidance for policymakers and practitioners to mainstream pro-poor environment and climate concerns into planning, budgeting and monitoring. Mainstreaming is achieved by putting poverty-environment issues at the heart of government—in other words, by taking these issues into mainstream economic decision-making processes, particularly the national and subnational planning and budgeting processes led by ministries of finance, planning and local government,and supported by ministries of environment. It is available in English, French and Spanish.

Over the last 10 years, the Poverty-Environment Initiative, a joint programme of the United Nations Development Programme and UN Environment, has successfully supported the integration and implementation of pro-poor, environmental sustainability objectives into national,subnational and sectoral development policies, plans and budgets to contribute to poverty alleviation and an inclusive, green economy. The Handbook provides guidance and concrete examples from PEI experience in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as from other initiatives.

Women form a large proportion of agricultural labor force in sub-saharan Africa and thus play a vital role in ensuring family nutrition and food security. A new study measuring the economic costs of the gender gap in agricultural productivity in three African countries — Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda — provides further evidence that reducing the gender gap translates into significant poverty reduction and improved nutritional outcomes. The report provides a unique quantification of the costs in terms of lost growth opportunities and an estimate of what societies, economies and communities would gain were the gender gaps in agriculture to be addressed. The report also provides guidance as to the factors that must be targeted in order to close the gender gap by improving opportunities for women farmers. It concludes with a set of general policy recommendations of how women’s empowerment, agriculture productivity and economic growth can be addressed in an integrated manner and thereby contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at the national level.

During 2013, the UNDP-UN Environment PEI built on the results of previous years in strengthening institutions through P-E mainstreaming. The PEI 2013 Annual Progress Report highlights the main achievements in 2013 reflecting a deepening of the ownership in PEI-supported countries. Such ownership is demonstrated by the increasing number of countries that are integrating P-E objectives into sector plans, policies, and monitoring and evaluation systems. This in turn has resulted in growing investments in and budget allocations for P-E objectives and climate change adaptation. The PEI efforts in 2013 reflect a growing recognition among partner countries that the P-E nexus remains a foundational element of greening economies.

The PEI Stories of Change from Africa is a small booklet capturing the PEI Africa experiences of various stakeholders ranging from the government to vulnerable groups in Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mozambique and Rwanda. The booklet includes the chapters; Nine African countries lead the way towards an inclusive green economy; Rwanda greening policies and villages for poverty reduction; Burkina Faso championing the need to invest in sustainable development; Mozambique poverty and environment cuts across sectoral boundaries; and Malawi changes course after analysing the real costs and benefits of policy choices.

The PEI Stories of Change is a small booklet capturing the PEI experiences of various stakeholders ranging from the government to vulnerable groups in Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Malawi, Tajikistan and Uruguay. The booklet includes the chapters; Bangladesh pioneers new ‘climate change accounts’ to reveal the real cost of adaptation; Lao PDR new rulebook for foreign investment in natural resources boosts local benefits; Malawi changes course after analysing the real costs and benefits of policy choices; Tajikistan overhauls their whole planning process with the ‘triple bottom line’; Sharing the waste, sharing the wealth: Uruguay uses the law to catalyse the transition to an inclusive green economy; and the global story the architects of change.

The Annual Progress Report 2010 covers the contineous impact that PEI country programmes have had over the past several years and the progress made in expanding, operationalising and implementing the UNDP-UN Environment Poverty-Environment Initiative. The Report 2010 presents an overview of progress made at country, regional and global level, details the collaboration between the two host organizations on poverty-environment mainstreaming, looks at opportunities and challenges and reflects the increased focus on good practices and improvements on monitoring and evaluation.

The year 2011 has been a critical one in accomplishing the transition from making the case for the integration of poverty-environment objectives into key development issues and actually making this integration happen. During this transition, there has been a level of maturity in PEI country programmes attributable to the combination of political, economic, environmental, institutional and social transformations supported by PEI and contributing to positive change. This report highlights many of the successes and some of the challenges faced this year in bringing about this change.

This primer seeks to provide practical advice on how host countries can manage FDI inflows to encourage pro-poor, environmentally sustainable development. It is aimed at public decision makers in developing countries dealing with FDI, particularly officials in investment boards, investment promotion agencies and relevant ministries. The focus is on FDI in the primary sector, including agriculture, forestry and extractive industries—an area of growing interest among international investors and a sector of high economic significance for many developing countries.

This discussion note is based on findings of a PEI Asia regional thematic workshop on “Local Government’s role in environment, natural resource management and climate change (2009)”. It identifies ways in which local governments can address climate change, both at the policy level and on the ground and outlines approaches for national governments, development agencies and civil society institutions to improve the performance of local governments in addressing climate change. The note was produced jointly by PEI Asia-Pacific and the United Nations Capital Development Fund.

This primer provides guidance on mainstreaming poverty-environment linkages in national development planning and the potential role and importance of environmental law in this context. The primer is designed as a resource to help practitioners and government representatives to assess and, if appropriate, initiate legislative reform. The primer puts particular emphasis on laws governing the sustainable use and management of natural resources.

This handbook is designed to serve as a guide for champions and practitioners engaged in the task of mainstreaming poverty-environment linkages into national development planning. The handbook draws on a substantial body of experience at the country level and the many lessons learned by the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme in working with governments — especially ministries of planning, finance and environment — to support efforts to integrate the complex interrelationships between poverty reduction and improved environmental management into national planning and decision-making. Hard copies can be ordered through the Poverty Environment Facility.

The 2015 Handbook to Strengthen Planning and Budgeting Processes is now available in Arabic, the first Poverty-Environment Initiative publication to be published in the Arabic language. The Handbook is designed as guidance for policymakers and practitioners to mainstream pro-poor environment and climate concerns into planning, budgeting and monitoring. Mainstreaming is achieved by putting poverty-environment issues at the heart of government—in other words, by taking these issues into mainstream economic decision-making processes, particularly the national and subnational planning and budgeting processes led by ministries of finance, planning and local government,and supported by ministries of environment. It is available in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Over the last 10 years, the Poverty-Environment Initiative, a joint programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) has successfully supported the integration and implementation of pro-poor, environmental sustainability objectives into national, subnational and sectoral development policies, plans and budgets to contribute to poverty alleviation and an inclusive, green economy. The Handbook provides guidance and concrete examples from Poverty-Environment Initiative experience in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as from other initiatives. A brochure describing the Handbook is also available in Arabic.

Shifting to a green economy recognizes the value of nature for millions of people in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), now and in the future. Many are moving forward on a green growth agenda in the understanding that this development pathway offers the potential for sustainable economic development with more equitable sharing of the gains. Currently, there are a number of unique opportunities for the transition to a green economy. This report from WWF focuses on some signals of policy progress on this transition, barriers to progress, and recommendations for moving the agenda forward. The report highlights the UNDP-UN Environment Poverty-Environment Initiative’s support to countries in the GMS in conducting Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Reviews (CPEIR) as a tool to help countries review current climate and environment expenditures. 

This report highlights how the partnerships between countries in the South are contributing to a global paradigm shift. It provides a snapshot of a myriad of projects and activities that are sparking new concepts, financing, technology, standards and momentum for change. The report shows how countries and other actors are pursuing initiatives to green key sectors of the economy from agriculture and energy to manufacturing and waste while sharing their knowledge and experiences with others, so they can also reap the benefits as well. Chapter 6, ‘Packaging for a greener future in Uruguay, Ecuador and Peru’ focuses on how the Government of Uruguay introduced a new packaging law that successfully demonstrates the links between improved health, environment and jobs, with the support of PEI, and how similar initiatives now is being initiated across Latin America. Chapter 7, ‘New technologies and incentives are fueling local economies’ highlights the south-south exchange between Rwanda and three Asian countries – Lao PDR, Nepal and Thailand. The exchange focused on economic tools for poverty-environment mainstreaming, private sector development and poverty alleviation.      

Roots of resilience publication by World Resources Institute