Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an overarching objective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The mainstreaming of poverty-environment objectives into policy, budgeting, programming, and investments by the United Nations Development Programme–United Nations Environment Programme (UNDP–UNEP) Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals, launched in 2018, and its predecessor entity, the UNDP–UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative, demonstrates how improved environmental sustainability can address this challenge and contribute to poverty eradication.
The focus of Poverty-Environment Action is on deepening and broadening poverty-environment mainstreaming and aligning finance and investment with poverty, environment, and climate objectives, in the face of the changing forms and conditions of poverty found in the world today.
Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals has embarked on eight full-fledged country projects — in Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Malawi, Mauritania, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nepal, and Rwanda — and six technical assistance efforts — in Indonesia, South Africa, and Tanzania; an establishment of the virtual platform; and via strategic partnerships with the Asian Development Bank, GIZ and UN Women, in which substantive gains had been made through Phase 2 (2014–2018) of the Poverty-Environment Initiative, and that had high potential to deliver on the shift in investments expected from Poverty-Environment Action. The overall intended outcome for Poverty-Environment Action is "Strengthened integration of poverty-environment objectives into policies, plans, regulations, and investments of partner countries to accelerate delivery of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals."
UNDP-UNEP Poverty Environment Initiative
(2005-2017)
The Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was a global programme that supported country-led efforts to mainstream poverty-environment objectives into national development and sub-national development planning, from policy-making to budgeting, implementation and monitoring. First in support of national efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and now as a model for implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With both financial and technical support, PEI assisted government decision-makers and a wide range of other stakeholders in managing the environment in a way that improved livelihoods, reduced poverty, inequalities and led to sustainable growth. The PEI worked with key government partners to raise awareness, influence policy-making and strengthen the mainstreaming of poverty and environment into budget processes, sector programmes and sub-national planning. The overall aim was to bring about lasting institutional change and to catalyse key actors to increase investment in pro-poor environmental and natural resource management.
The PEI worked with key government partners to raise awareness, influence policy making and strengthen the mainstreaming of the Poverty-Environment Nexus issues into development planning and budgeting processes, sector programmes, investment management processes and sub-national planning. PEI aimed to support countries to achieve the following outputs by 2017:
- Output 1: P-E approaches and tools for integrated development policies, plans and coordination mechanisms applied.
- Output 2: Cross-sectoral budget and expenditure processes, and environmental-economic accounting systems institutionalised.
- Output 3: P-E approaches and experiences documented and shared to inform country, regional and global development programming by the UN and Member States.
UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Action for SDGs (2018-2022)
Poverty Environment Action for the Sustainable Development Goals is a joint global project which provides an avenue for the poverty environment mainstreaming process. It emanates from the sustained partnership between UNDP and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) as strategic actors within the UN system to advance the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. It is four-year project (2018-2022) jointly implemented by UNDP and UNEP with Global Policy Centre on Resilient Ecosystems and Desertification (GC-RED) as the Managing Agent with a US$ 20 million budget through a pooled fund, financed by the European Union (EU), Austrian Development Agency (ADA), Norway and Sweden through UNEP, as well as core resources from the UN agencies.
Poverty-Environment Action aims at mainstreaming environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication into development planning, budgeting and monitoring systems into public and private finance and investment. Eight full-fledged countries are being supported through the initiative with four in Africa (Rwanda, Mauritania, Malawi, Mozambique) and four in Asia (Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Nepal). Additionally, Tanzania and Indonesia are also being supported with technical assistance.
By building on PEI’s legacy, Poverty-Environment Action is uniquely placed to ensure that the environmental dimension is not left behind when addressing poverty. Poverty-Environment Action also provides opportunities to improve the quality of private sector investments to support poverty-environment objectives. This represents the new focus of Poverty-Environment Action—aligning finance and investment with poverty, environment and climate objectives to accelerate SDG implementation.
Rwanda
Sustainable finance turbocharges Rwanda’s green villages to end poverty
{"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/v3vsggZFDJ8.jpg?itok=6YznPWnk","video_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3vsggZFDJ8","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":1},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive, autoplaying)."]}
A team from UNEP and UNITAR visited Rwanda in May 2022 to document the impact of the joint UNDP‒UNEP Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals (2018-2022) project and learn how Rwanda’s efforts to achieve sustainable development would be sustained after 2022. We examined how Rwanda‘s “Green Village” projects address poverty-related environmental problems such as soil erosion, inadequate access to water, deforestation and unsustainable land use and clean energy. The National Climate and Environment Fund (FONERWA) helped provide sustainable financing of poverty-environment linkages at the national and local level and turbocharged the Green Villages, which evolved to become “Integrated Development Project Model Villages”. The interventions have enabled their communities to increase livelihoods, improve food security, protect natural resources , advance gender equality and enable children, particularly girls, to attend school.
Indonesia
Poverty-Environment Action aids Indonesian sustainable investments
{"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/Q_OTOJ5EG60.jpg?itok=JNIdu3dg","video_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_OTOJ5EG60","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":1},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive, autoplaying)."]}
On a breezy morning in late November 2022, a team from UNEP and UNITAR set out in Coast Guard pontoon boats to view up close installations of solar photovoltaic buoys and lighthouses which serve to safely guide navigation in Jakarta Bay. The solar installations are part of the effort to put the country on the path to decarbonisation and meet commitments set in Indonesia‘s Enhanced Nationally Determined Contribution, in fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals. The joint project UNDP‒UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) supported government efforts to develop and implement tools to support measures which qualify for Green Bond/Green Sukuk (Islamic Bond) investments. A Green Sukuk issuance in 2019 funded the Double Track Railway Project in North Java Line Double track railway, making transportation in and out of the Capital more sustainable. Through the Sustainable Development Finance Project, Poverty-Environment Action, the successor to PEI, continued to support the country‘s Green Sukuk initiatives by building capacity among Government officials to employ climate and gender-sensitive budgeting and investment.
Malawi
Poverty-Environment Action strengthens women-led cooperatives in Malawi
{"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/m5pqgeoHRY4.jpg?itok=jxCyFefb","video_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5pqgeoHRY4","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":1},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive, autoplaying)."]}
Poverty-Environment Action Malawi has fostered integration of environmental sustainability and climate objectives in development planning, budgeting and monitoring systems; and incentivized shifts in public and private investments towards environmental sustainability and climate objectives for poverty eradication. During a visit to Malawi undertaken in October 2022, organized by United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), UNDP Malawi introduced our team to the main tools used to build support for Poverty-Environment Action, with a special focus on agricultural and gender reforms. Three seminal reports and policy briefs developed through the Poverty-Environment Action Malawi – the Climate Smart Aquaculture Toolkit, Soil Loss Mitigation Action Plan and Strategy and the companion Policy Brief, Route to Sustainable Land Management in Malawi: Soil Conservation and Restoration – highlight opportunities for addressing aquaculture and soil and nutrient losses issues in Malawi. The Cost-Benefit Analysis of the ADAPT PLAN report and policy brief demonstrate the efficiency and impact of various climate adaptation interventions on community livelihoods, environment and natural resources. The findings of the report helped build the case for strengthening support for women-led cooperatives in Malawi.
Generation Talks
{"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/nrpSXY7Y-C8.jpg?itok=AS2pqrqz","video_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrpSXY7Y-C8","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":1},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive, autoplaying)."]}
{"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/OkADVReF9hU.jpg?itok=CXyGtoxw","video_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkADVReF9hU","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":1},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive, autoplaying)."]}
{"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/hz6X3U4tJLU.jpg?itok=SEDiFiCx","video_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz6X3U4tJLU","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":1},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive, autoplaying)."]}
UN Environment Programme
United Nations Avenue, Gigiri Nairobi, Kenya
P.O. Box 30552, 00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 (0)20 762 1234
For more information and queries, please contact
UNEP Ecosystem Integration Branch,
Director Johan Robinson, email: [email protected]
