The UN Development Programme and UN Environment Programme (UNDP-UNEP) Poverty-Environment Initiative has published this Handbook, which is designed to serve as a guide for champions and practitioners engaged in mainstreaming poverty-environment linkages. It draws on experience at the country level and lessons learned by UNDP and UNEP 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. French and Spanish translations are currently under preparation and will be made available soon.

Download the handbook
http://www.unpei.org

Making the Economic Case: A Primer on the Economic Arguments for Mainstreaming Poverty-Environment Linkages into National Development Planning

This new primer provides guidance on presenting evidence about the economic, development and poverty reduction benefits of the environment to public sector decision-makers, so as to justify and promote “environmental investment.” This primer is designed to help interested countries and governments engaged in the environmental mainstreaming challenge to succeed in making their case, ensure that they have the evidence to back it up, and identify entry points to engage the attention of economic and development decision-makers and to enter into meaningful dialogue with them.

Download the primer (1.91 MB, PDF)
http://www.unpei.org

This Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP) report is dedicated to the increasingly popular topic of 'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation' (REDD). Making REDD Work for the Poor outlines how the design of REDD could infuence its poverty implications and the key requirements for ensuring that REDD works for the poor.

Download the report
http://www.iucn.org

The Fourteenth Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP 14) Meeting was held on 31 March – 2 April, 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. It was hosted by United Nations Environment Programme, Regional Office for Europe.

Participants of the 14th PEP meeting. (Click for larger image.)

 
Agenda (PDF)
Final Report (PDF)
List of Participants (PDF) New!
31 March presentations
1 April presentations

The World Resources Report (WRR) provides policymakers around the world—government, civil society, and business—with analysis and insight about major environmental and development issues. World Resources Report 2008, Roots of Resilience: Growing the Wealth of the Poor continues the focus on poverty and the environment. The reality of global poverty is that it is rural and it is persistent: three-quarters of the 2.6 billion people living on less than $2 per day — almost 2 billion — live in rural areas; that number is virtually unchanged in 20 years.

World Resources 2008 argues that successfully scaling up environmental income for the poor requires three elements:

1) Ownership - A foundation of good governance that both transfers to the poor real authority over local resources and elicits local demand for better management of these resources.
2) Capacity – Making good on this demand requires building local capacity for development-in this case, the capacity of local communities to manage ecosystems competently, carry out ecosystem-based enterprises, and distribute the income from these enterprises fairly.
3) Networks – The third element is establishing adaptive networks that connect and nurture nature-based enterprises, giving them the ability to adapt, learn, connect to markets, and mature into businesses that can sustain themselves and enter the economic mainstream.

The result is communities with increased resilience: economic, social and environmental. Such outcomes take on added import as it becomes increasingly clear that the impacts of climate change are likely to have their biggest effect on those areas where most of the world’s poor live: drylands, low-latitude geographies and high-stress watershed.
 
Read more
http://www.wri.org/publication/world-resources-2008-roots-of-resilience

Overcoming environmental degradation is necessary if we are to reduce poverty. This is especially true in Asia and the Pacific, where two thirds of the world’s poor live. Environmental degradation in the region is pervasive and it is accelerating.

This publication provides an overview of poverty-environment interactions and presents some of these case studies and others that show how poor communities in Asia and the Pacific have sought to break out of poverty through local actions that improved their environment or made them less vulnerable to environmental stress.

Download the document
http://www.adb.org

How can you make the economic case for better management of environment and natural resources in poverty reduction strategies and other national planning documents?
 
This important question is addressed in the new OECD working paper “Greening development planning - A Review of Country Case Studies for Making the Economic Case for Improved Management of Environment and Natural Resources”.
 
Approaches from five countries are reviewed (Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Peru, Tajikistan and Uganda). By involving policy makers in the process of making the country reports, and focusing on environmental and natural resources issues in function of their links with prioritised objectives like economic growth, poverty reduction and public health, the chances to influence policy making have been enhanced. Drawing from the review of these country case studies as well as literature on public policy, this report provides recommendations for governments wishing to undertake an economic analysis of the environment and natural resources management for planning purposes, and for OECD members interested in supporting the process.
 
This report is one in a series prepared for the Task Team on Governance and Capacity Development for Natural Resources and Environmental Management under the OECD Environment Policy and Development Assistance Committees. The project aims to update OECD guidelines for capacity development for environment and provide guidance on selected topics.  The report has been produced by a team from the Swedish International Development cooperation Agency, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the University of Gothenburg.

Download the report (612 KB, PDF) 

Related documents:

Lao PDR Case Study 

• Lao Biodiversity Economic Assessment (PDF)
  
• Lao PDR - Biodiversity and Poverty Reduction (PDF)
  
• LMPA Lao PDR - Protected Area Development Linkages (PDF)
  

Mozambique Case Study

• An Economic Analysis of Natural Resources Sustainability in Mozambique (pdf)
• Mozambique Country Economic Memorandum Background paper on mining (PDF)
• An Economic Evaluation of Forestry Regulation in Mozambique (PDF)
• An Economic Analysis of Natural Resources Sustainability in Mozambique Fisheries (PDF)
• An Economic Analysis of Natural Resources in Mozambique: Rural Land Issues and Policies (PDF)
• Economic Analysis of Natural Resources in Mozambique: Water Resources (PDF)
• Mozambique - Country economic memorandum : sustaining growth and reducing poverty (World Bank site)

Peru Case Study

• Republic of Peru environmental sustainability: a key to poverty reduction in Peru (World Bank site)

Tajikistan Case Study

• Making Pro-poor Growth in Tajikistan Sustainable (PDF)

Uganda Case Study

• The role of environment in increasing growth and reducing poverty in Uganda (PDF)
• The role of environment in increasing growth and reducing poverty in Uganda: Summary Report (PDF)

This independent evaluation was commissioned by the PEP in November of 2007 at its 12th meeting to assess the performance of PEP and provide guidance for improving its relevance, effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its mandate. From April to September 2008 an independent consulting team carried out multiple interviews and surveys with PEP members, thoroughly reviewed past PEP meetings notes and PEP products, and analyzed other major international partnerships and gatherings.

The performance of PEP was assessed by analyzing its effectiveness in achieving its mandate and objectives after seven years of multi-donor meetings and numerous joint documents. Key themes analyzed in this evaluation include the evolution of PEP’s participant makeup, thematic focuses, organizational processes and involvement of developing country partners. This report presents the findings of this analysis and recommends actions across seven main themes to enhance PEP’s sustainability.

Download the report (900 KB, PDF)