Environment and Communication: Navigating a Spider's web

1
Environment and Communication Navigating a
Spider's web

• This presentation will probably involve audience
  discussion, which will create action items. Use
  PowerPoint to keep track of these action items
  during your presentation
• In Slide Show, click on the right mouse button
• Select Meeting Minder
• Select the Action Items tab
• Type in action items as they come up
• Click OK to dismiss this box
• This will automatically create an Action Item
  slide at the end of your presentation with your
  points entered.

• Remarks by Mr. Strike Mkandla
• UNEP Representative to AU, ECA and Ethiopia

10th Inter-agency Round Table on Communication
for Development Addis Ababa, 12-14
February 2007
2
Change at UNEP

• New Executive Director(ED), Achim Steiner
• Many changes and new faces in Senior Management
  Team(SMT)
• Reinforcement of mandate and increased optimism

3
Complexity of the Environment

• Spiders web-complex but interconnected
• Global Environmental Governance referred to as
  the organization of the impossible (as cited in
  the book Global Environmental Governance A
  reform agenda)
• Multiple actors within and outside the UN system
• Multiplicity of frameworks - Multilateral
  Environmental Agreements (MEAs)
• Difficulty of communicating linkages

4
Partnership-Imperative and Inescapable

• Big mandate and very limited resources
• Catalytic role-promoting action by and through
  others
• Mission statement - to provide leadership and
  encourage partnership in caring for the
  environment by inspiring,informing and enabling
  nations and peoples to improve their quality of
  life without compromising that of future
  generations.
• Inter-agency partnership built in from the
  beginning

5
Inter-agency partnership for Capacity Building
and Communication

• Historic emphasis on inter-agency collaboration
• 24th UNEP Governing Council attended by UNDP,
  World Trade Organization(WTO), UNIDO, United
  Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO),
  UN-Habitat
• Inter-agency frameworks - UN-Water, UN-Energy
• Support to African Ministerial Bodies - AMCEN,
  AMCOW
• Inter-agency partnership for NEPAD/AU under
  UNECAs coordination

6
Some examples of the collaboration in program
development and implementation

• UNEPs capacity building for sustainable
  development - dependant on UN partnership
• Partnership with UNDP
• The Bale Strategic Plan
• Poverty and the Environment
• Partnership with UNIDO
• Establishment of cleaner production center

7
Continued

• African Round Table for Sustainable Consumption
  and Production (ARSCP)
• Ozone Action Program

• Partnership with UNESCO on Eco-schools and
  Environmental Education
• Partnership with UN-Habitat on Water for Cities
• Partnership with WHO on Phase out Persistent
  Organic Pollutants (POPs)
• Partnership with UNCTAD on Trade and Environment

8
Other Partnerships

• 8th Global Civil Society Forum (GCSF) attended by
  INGOs, NGOs, CBOs and major group organizations
• Partnership with Google Earth
• Partnership with IUCN
• Partnership with International Olympic Committee
  on environmental checklists for various spots
• Partnership with International Center for
  Environmental Law (ICEL) - production of
  environmental notes for parliamentarians

9
Continued

• UNEP activities dependant on cooperation and
  collaboration
• Response to natural disasters - UNOCHA, UNHCR,
  FAO, WMO, ITU and WFP
• Early Warning and Assessment
• GEO - many global, regional and local partners
• AEO - regional, sub-regional and global partners
• Millennium Eco-system Assessment
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)

10
The way forward

• There must be sharing of credit and visibility
  among agencies for common or joint programs.
• A way must be found to get top level buy-in and
  commitment at the highest levels of UN
  organizations for coordinated C4D.

11
Continued

• There must be a collective and holistic vision
  for C4D.
• While respecting agency mandates, linkages across
  agency and thematic boundaries must be made in
  communicating in such fields as the environment.