Poverty-Environment Action knowledge management: How did we do?
Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals (PEA) results will be sustained and replicated through integration into ongoing UNDP and UNEP initiatives, contributing to broader PEA outcomes. Through the institutionalization of PEA lessons into ongoing UNDP and UNEP initiatives, and other sustainability measures, the PEA legacy will continue to have a positive impact on broader efforts to advance the integrated approaches for eradicating poverty and strengthening environmental sustainability needed to accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The PEA Final Narrative Report offers a detailed review of PEA implementation by outcome and output indicator performance. It continues with communication and visibility efforts, an examination of the challenges encountered to successful implementation, and lessons for strengthening project delivery.
(As UNEP Ecosystems Integration Branch's lead communications and knowledge management officer, these are the areas where I had primarily worked from January 2020 to September 2022. From 2014 to 2018, I served as Programme Management Officer with the Poverty-Environment Initiative Unit at UNEP's Headquarters in Nairobi.)
Here are highlights from the Final Narrative Report covering Output 3: SDG implementation and acceleration processes leveraged to scale up use of integrated poverty-environment mainstreaming approaches and tools.
Output 3 focuses on enhancing the spread and effectiveness of poverty-environment mainstreaming by better capturing, assessing and documenting good practices; by linking ongoing work of key global and regional actors supporting national SDG implementation and acceleration processes (e.g. national SDG platforms, regional SDG knowledge exchanges); and through South-South cooperation. This output was tracked through three indicators. Indicators 3.1 and 3.2 were partially achieved; while Indicator 3.3 surpassed the project target. Overall, advocacy efforts need to be scaled up if more countries, regional and global networks are to adopt integrated poverty-environment mainstreaming approaches and tools. As a long-term goal, this has been strategically addressed in the post-PEA sustainability plan.
INDICATOR 3.1 Number of Poverty-Environment Action knowledge-sharing and learning products that are referenced by regional and global networks The target was partially achieved at 60, missing the target by 3. Advocacy and coordination efforts were scaled up with development partners engaged in supporting SDG implementation to mainstream use of PEA integrated approaches and tools in their programmes to ensure synergies.
The integrated approach of PEI/PEA was incorporated by the UN Environment Management Group and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in the Workshop on Integrated Approaches to Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals at the 2018 and 2019 UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
PEA scaled up its advocacy and coordination efforts with development partners engaged in supporting SDG implementation to mainstream the use of PEA integrated approaches and tools in their programmes to ensure synergies. These advocacy and coordination efforts paid off as evidenced in the steady increase in learning products being referenced by regional and global networks.
INDICATOR 3.2 Number of countries adopting Poverty-Environment Action tools/approaches resulting from South-South knowledge collaborations The target was partially achieved, with half of the planned 18 countries demonstrating adoption of PEA tools and approaches resulting from South-South knowledge collaboration.
Following successful organization of the webinar on green private finance (17 November 2021), the economist at the UN Resident Coordinator Office in Cambodia and the Resident Coordinator Office in Sri Lanka followed up with PEA to explore application of the tools and requested more collaboration on green private finance and supporting UN Country Teams in the area.
INDICATOR 3.3 Number of regional and global Poverty-Environment Action partner programmes and agencies that apply an integrated mainstreaming approach The target was exceeded at 23, surpassing the project target of 20. PEA successfully established regional and global partnerships with agencies that apply an integrated mainstreaming approach – notably, UN Resident Coordinators, the International Labour Organization, UN Women, the United Nations Capital Development Fund, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP), GIZ, PAGE, the ADB, UNRISD, the University of Sussex, IDEP/International Movement ATD Fourth World, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Blue Impact Asia, the UNCC:Learn platform, and the Chinese Academy of Science, among others.
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PEA successfully established regional partnerships through technical assistance initiatives with UN Women in gender and agriculture; the ADB on the blue economy; GIZ on green bonds embedded in the Green Economy Transformation project in cooperation with PAGE; and with the Green Economy Coalition/Partnership for Inclusive Green Economy on country and global work.
To advocate for increased application of the integrated mainstreaming approach, a series of webinars were conducted. [For example,] a webinar on SDG bonds was organized and showcased promising approaches and good practices on SDG finance among UNDP Country Offices in the Asia Pacific region.
An opportunity to highlight PEA’s programming and integrated mainstreaming approach was taken via its inclusion in the Fourth Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of Asia Pacific’s official background documents (5–7 October 2021).
The third edition of the PEA mainstreaming handbook, ‘Sustainable Development in Practice: A Handbook for Integrating Environment, Climate and Poverty Reduction’, has been [issued]. The handbook describes in detail a practical framework for integration – organized around the typical decision-making cycle of planning, budgeting, investing, executing, monitoring, review and dialogue; along with detailed guidance on tasks, tools and tactics for each step of integration; and the different types of integration as well as the processes and requisites of integration.
PEA, through UNITAR, developed user-friendly and easily accessible interactive training modules for mainstreaming poverty-environment-climate capacity development in a post-COVID-19 environment through 2022 and beyond, as well as video documentaries for select countries.
To house the PEA knowledge products, a capacity-building virtual platform was developed to provide a space where PEA and its partners can provide capacity-building activities including on-demand training and South-South cooperation to governments and partners upon request.
The full report is available from the Green Policy Forum Poverty-Environment Action Sustainability platform:
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