New U.N. Initiative Nudges Environmental Issues into Poverty Alleviation Policies

By Roger Hamilton-Martin Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 2013 (IPS) - Should countries change the way they think about their development? This is the central question of the new joint initiative between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), called The Poverty-Environment Initiative.

The goal of the Initiative is to promote sustainable environmental policy as a tool to alleviate poverty. Too often governments can see environmental considerations as obstacles to economic improvement; the Poverty-Environment Initiative promotes a shift in that thinking. In the words of UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, “We destroy the natural environment in the name of development, but that very environment we destroy is something which the poor rely on for their economic development.”

The UNDP and UNEP convened this afternoon at the United Nations Headquarters in New York for a joint conference to report on the success of their efforts to champion the integration of development and environmental policy in 50 nations worldwide. In the past year the Poverty-Environment Initiative has successfully supported many of these countries in transforming their institutions, and plans to branch out in the future from mere political advocacy to persuading finance ministries to put their money where their mouths are as regards funding for environmental projects. Steiner also stressed that the initiative showed that joint projects between UN departments may be a step in the right direction; for him the initiative showed the “ability of the U.N. family to work as one.”

Bangladeshi governmental representative Dr. Shamsul Alam spoke at the conference of the impact which the project could have in his country with regards to natural disasters. Bangladesh is susceptible to cyclones, notably in 2007 when cyclone Sidr tore through the nation killing up to 10,000, and causing a drop in the country’s GDP of over three percent. “Bangladesh only spends five percent of its national budget on environmental issues,” Dr. Alam exclaimed. The message was clear – if policy makers want to help the poor, they should pay more attention to environmental problems.