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Concept Paper Mainstreaming Environment beyond MDG 7 A High-Level Brainstorming Workshop 13 and 14 July 2005, Nairobi, Kenya Organized by UNEP/Division of Environmental Conventions We fundamentally depend on natural systems and resources for our existence and development. Our efforts to defeat poverty and pursue sustainable development will be in vain if environmental degradation and natural resource depletion continue unabated. At the country level, national strategies must include investments in improved environmental management and make the structural changes required for environmental sustainability. For many environmental priorities, such as shared waterways, forests, marine fisheries and biodiversity, regional and global efforts must be strengthened. - Kofi Annan, In Larger Freedom 1. Introduction From 14 to 16 September 2005, a high-level plenary meeting of the 60th session of the General Assembly will undertake a comprehensive review on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration, and the integrated follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields. Many multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), by their very nature, share common goals with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other international and regional sustainable development initiatives. It is therefore important that both the development and the environment communities work together to achieve the MDGs. As the international community moves towards the review of the Millennium Declaration, it is urgent that the MEA and the MDG communities initiate discussions on next steps and potential options that take better account of the symbiotic relationship between poverty, human well-being, and the prerequisites of these conditions on ecosystems services. These relationships require greater examination and clarification from both the environment and development points of view. An additional urgency to consider the integration of the environment and development agendas was created by the release of several key reports highlighting critical findings that need a cooperative response. Since January 2005, three reports have been published that are directly related to the MDGs: - The UN Millennium Project report, “Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals,” released in January 2005 - The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) synthesis report, “Biodiversity and Human Well–being: A Synthesis Report for the Convention on Biological Diversity,” released on 19 May 2005 - The draft UNDP report, “Environmental Sustainability in 100 Millennium Development Goal Country Reports,” released on 10 June 2005. The UN Millennium Project report is the result of reports from 10 task forces, composed of a broad array of development practitioners and experts across an enormous range of countries, disciplines and organizations. The MA report synthesizes findings from the MA global and sub-global assessments on biodiversity services and human well-being. The UNDP report summarizes results from over 100 MDG country reports (MDGRs) on the seventh MDG, that of ensuring environmental sustainability (MDG 7), which is a key area of the global sustainable development agenda. Some key findings of these reports as they relate to the MDGs are as follows: UNDP Report 1) Environmental issues are not highly integrated in MDGRs outside of MDG 7. 2) Out of the 100 countries reviewed, more than 60 view environmental issues as constraints to development. MA Report 1) Ecosystems provide benefits to human well-being through more than just its contribution to material welfare and livelihoods. 2) The loss of services derived from ecosystems is a significant barrier to the achievement of the MDGs related to reduction of poverty, hunger, and disease. 3) Trade-offs between achieving the 2015 targets of the MDGs and the 2010 target of reducing the rate of biodiversity loss are likely, although there are also many potential synergies between the various internationally agreed targets relating to biodiversity, environmental sustainability, and development. Coordinated implementation of these goals and targets would facilitate the consideration of trade-offs and synergies. UN Millennium Project’s report 1) Developing country governments should adopt development strategies that are bold enough to meet the 2015 target to achieve the MDGs. We term them MDG-based poverty reduction strategies... Where Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) already exist; those should be aligned with the MDGs. 2) The MDG-based PRSPs should anchor the scaling up of public investment, capacity building, domestic resource mobilization, and other official development assistance … In order to provide a forum where these issues can be discussed and next steps clarified, the Division of Environmental Conventions of (UNEP-DEC) will be organizing a high-level brainstorming workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, on 13 and 14 July 2005. Representatives from various MEAs, the Millennium Development Project, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and other bodies will have an opportunity to decide on potential options for action. 2. Environment as a pillar for the MDGs Environmental conditions and the services they provide have a significant impact on many aspects of poverty and development, and achieving environmental sustainability is fundamental to achieving all of the MDGs. Integrating environment as a crosscutting issue among the MDGs is therefore a useful indication of how well the linkages between environment and achieving poverty reduction and improving human well-being are recognized and acted upon. Many practical examples show the clear linkages between environment and the MDGs including: improving access to safe drinking water to reduce child mortality (Burundi’s MDG 4); establishing an Early Warning System to forecast and address the consequence of adverse climatic conditions and improving water quality to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition (Rwanda, MDG 1) and disease (Rwanda, MDG 4); integrating the gender dimension into land laws as a tool to guarantee equal access to, and control over, agricultural inputs (Rwanda, MDG 3); increasing access to safe water as a tool to reduce maternal mortality (Uganda, MDG 5); improving water networks to reduce poverty and child mortality rates (Cameroon, MDG 1 and 4, Cambodia, MDG 4); and enhancing technology, and access to it, for improved air and water quality, protection from floods, and land and forest management for poverty reduction, and extreme hunger (Bosnia and Herzegovina, MDG 1)1. The greatest concern when looking at the MDGs and their links to environmental issues is that ecosystems services are inevitably exhaustible, and have already been considerably weakened. The MA found that two-thirds of the services that ecosystems provide to humankind are in decline, many of them, such as global fisheries, having been weakened beyond repair. While ecosystems services are already in a depleted state generally, significant increases in the supply of ecosystems services are required to achieve many of the MDGs. The dilemma therefore is how these divergences can be reconciled? Two-Way MEA Approaches There are two approaches to linking the MEAs with the MDGs. These approaches are mutually compatible. First, MDGs can serve as tools for MEA implementation and, similarly, MEAs can serve achieving the goals of the MDGs. By far, the MEA-MDG 7 links are those that have the greatest clarity. Twenty–seven of the leading principles of sustainable development are found in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. Many of these principles have been re-articulated and implemented through most modern MEAs. On the other end of the spectrum, international and national strategies concerned with improving economic and social conditions are now being re-articulated through the MDG process, to take better account of the ecological impacts. For example, PRSPs should view poverty not only in terms of livelihoods and income but also through the multi-dimensional lens of human well-being, including climate change adaptation and the contribution of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services to security, food, shelter, health, freedom of choice and action and good social relations. What is missing and what the MDG process requires are integrated approaches with the environmental sector in order to coordinate and mobilize on-the-ground activities concerning the environment-MDGs links. One critical way to facilitate this is through a holistic engagement of MEAs in the broader MDG process, and vice versa. MEAs focus on specific, ground-truth-based activities. But more critically, MEAs are legally binding instruments capable of mobilizing effective social action and change. 3. Purpose of the Initiative 1 From the draft UNDP synthesis report of 100 country MDG reports, 10 June 2005 The initiative “Mainstreaming Environment beyond MDG 7” will focus on the challenge of mainstreaming environment beyond MDG 7 from an MEA perspective. The objective is to provide input to the MDG process, possibly through the setting up of a plan of cooperation between UNEP, MEAs and the UN Millennium Project. Options for collaboration will have the following objectives: 1) Explore how the MDGs can serve the MEA process, by becoming one of its vehicles for integration, mainstreaming into national policies, and effective implementation. Specific focus can be given to ongoing and priority MEA themes and issues, such as land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the fight against soil erosion with poverty eradication through its sustainable development focus under the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the 2010 objectives under the Convention on Biological Diversity, among others; 2) Explore how the MEAs can serve as tools for mainstreaming environment within the MDG process. The high-level workshop is intended to discuss key issues related to mainstreaming environment within MDGs other than MDG 7. Among the workshop outcomes, an action paper is expected to be prepared, and submitted to relevant inter-governmental meetings, starting with the 2005 World Summit in September 2005, in New York. The initiative comprises several stages: 1. The first stage is the convening of the high-level workshop in Nairobi, on 13 and 14 July 2005. The workshop will provide an opportunity to consider progress thus far towards achieving the MDGs, what is working, what is not, and what should be the priorities for the 2005 World Summit review. The workshop will hear presentations by key actors involved in the UN Millennium Development Project. The MEAs will also be able to report on their work related to the MDGs, explain how they see the MDGs facilitating their work, and explore how they can contribute to the progress of the MDG process over the next five years. A common platform will be drafted as one of the outcomes of the meeting. 2. Following the meeting, a technical committee will be convened, under the guidance of the partners involved in the workshop, to expand and prepare a plan of cooperation, as well necessary activities for the MDG process. 3. Prior to the General Assembly session in September 2005, a special event will be organized in New York to present the plan of cooperation and get feedback from the various stakeholders involved in the MDG process. 4. Following the event, UNEP-DEC will continue to follow-up on the initiative, building upon the guidance of the partners, including through raising awareness of the issues and delivering on the plan of cooperation agreed upon in the process.
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