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POVERTY AND ENVIRONMENT INITIATIVE
Overview
Addressing environmental issues that matter to the poor – including biodiversity loss – is critical to sustained poverty reduction and to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. UNDP has made the poverty-environment nexus the core focus of its Energy and Environment Practice Area. The Poverty and Environment Initiative (PEI) is a cross-cutting programme that aims to help countries develop their capacity to integrate the environmental concerns of poor and vulnerable groups into national policy and planning frameworks for poverty reduction.
The initial phase of PEI focused on developing the analytical foundation for more integrated policy approaches to linking poverty reduction and environmental management. This included workshops and electronic conferences, commissioned studies in a number of key sectors, and the gathering of case studies. More recently, under the auspices of the Poverty-Environment Partnership, UNDP collaborated with the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the European Commission (EC) and the World Bank on an assessment of policy challenges and opportunities for more effectively linking poverty reduction and environmental management.
Building on this analytical foundation, UNDP, DFID and the EC are undertaking a new and expanded operational phase of PEI. PEI Phase 2 supports activities in three inter-related areas of focus: 1) poverty-environment analysis and capacity assessment; 2) poverty-environment policy development; and 3) poverty-environment indicators and monitoring. Work in each of these three core areas will be carried out through support of integrated poverty-environment programmes in five initial focus countries – Kenya and Tanzania, Cambodia and Vietnam, and Nicaragua – and through regional and global-level analysis, advocacy and knowledge networking activities.
Country Poverty-Environment Programmes
Initially, PEI and partner organizations will work in five countries to support Country Poverty-Environment Programmes, based on principles of national ownership, national capacity development and stakeholder participation. The aim is to enhance country-level capacity to formulate and implement a comprehensive and country-owned agenda for mainstreaming environment in poverty reduction planning and resource allocation processes at national and sub-national levels. Emphasis will be given to enhancing the capacity of poor and vulnerable groups to participate in and influence planning and policy processes, and to more effectively linking (‘scaling-up’) community-level analysis and experience with policy and institutional reforms.
Major outputs / areas of activity include:
>> Participatory poverty-environment analysis and capacity assessment to improve the knowledge base on poverty-environment linkages and policy lessons from effective community-level interventions, and to assess institutional capacity needs for linking poverty reduction and environmental management. Analytic work will focus on examining poverty-environment linkages from the perspectives of vulnerable groups to enhance understanding of their causes and effects within different local contexts, and of macro-level policy and institutional influences (‘macro-micro’ linkages). This work will apply principles and methods from the sustainable livelihoods approach, participatory poverty and vulnerability assessment, gender analysis, strategic environmental assessment and other relevant diagnostic and participatory tools.
>> Multi-stakeholder dialogue and policy development to stimulate debate, consensus and coalition-building around a country-owned policy reform and capacity development agenda for mainstreaming environment in poverty reduction planning and policy frameworks. Institutional capacity will be strengthened to incorporate the results from analytic work on poverty-environment issues and assessment of capacity development needs into poverty reduction strategies, macro and sectoral policies and plans, and budgetary frameworks.
>> Indicators and monitoring to develop appropriate poverty-environment (and gender-sensitive) indicators for measuring how environmental conditions impact the livelihoods, health and vulnerability of the poor, and to strengthen capacity in monitoring and assessing poverty-environment policy outcomes. This work also will build on results from participatory poverty-environment analysis, and will be linked to ongoing efforts to strengthen national poverty monitoring and assessment systems, a major area of country support under UNDP’s Poverty Reduction practice area.
These efforts will be supported in each country by a locally-managed fund that will award grants to local institutions (such as civil society organizations and academic and research centers) for policy-relevant action research, multi-stakeholder dialogue, advocacy and targeted capacity building to strengthen work on poverty-environment issues.
Regional and Global Analysis, Advocacy and Knowledge Networking
Country-level activities will be supported and leveraged through regional and global analysis, advocacy and knowledge networking activities, with an emphasis on South-South dialogue and experience exchange. The primary aim of these ‘communities of practice’ will be to facilitate learning and knowledge-sharing with a focus on supporting the application of policy and institutional innovations for more integrated approaches to linking poverty reduction and environmental management.
Major outputs / areas of activity include:
>> Regional communities of practice to support the documentation and sharing of lessons, good practices and case studies in participatory approaches to poverty-environment analysis, policy development and monitoring. This will include dissemination of policy research, practical experiences and other knowledge resources, and improving access to advisory services to strengthen the capacities of country stakeholders and UN Country Teams on integrating poverty-environment issues into poverty reduction planning and policy frameworks.
>> Global knowledge products and services to support analysis, advocacy and knowledge networking on poverty-environment issues. A strategic initiatives fund will provide targeted small grant support (up to US$50,000, but normally in the range of US$15-25,000) for country, regional and global level initiatives that can contribute to the development and spread of practical approaches, methods and tools for poverty-environment analysis and mainstreaming. A web-based poverty-environment knowledge network will provide a platform for local-to-global and global-to-local exchange, facilitate the synthesis and dissemination of lessons from country experiences, and expand access to knowledge resources on poverty-environment issues. In addition, PEI will seek to capitalize on unique opportunities for outreach and advocacy, such as follow-up to the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, and collaboration with the Poverty-Environment Partnership.
Further information:
Forests and the Poverty-Environment Nexus (PDF)
Attacking Poverty While Improving the Environment (PDF)
Online resources:
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