ENVIRONMENT: UNEP Members Urged To Pay Up Their Contributions

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Jan 28 1997 (IPS) - The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has urged its member states to pay up their contributions so as to allow the cash-strapped institution to carry on with its job of tackling environmental problems worldwide.

UNEP Executive Director Elizabeth Dowdeswell told a 12-day conference of environmental ministers which opened here on Monday that only 37 percent of the 185 member states contributed to the UNEP’s Environment Fund in 1996.

Their payments totalled 45.1 million dollars, out of the 68.5 million dollars approved by UNEP in February 1995. “That leaves a gap in this biennium of 23 million dollars between what UNEP should be doing and what it is able to do,” Dowdeswell said Monday.

She added that the total number of states that were actually contributing to the UNEP, which is based here, fell from 90 in the early 1980s to 76 in 1995, and to 68 in 1996.

The UNEP head thanked Lesotho, Uganda, Singapore, South Korea and Panama for paying up their contributions for 1997, and urged others to follow suit.

The Group of 77 (G-77), which is lobbying at the conference against any moves to scale down UNEP, is also concerned about the financial problems facing the institution, established in 1972 to tackle the growing environmental problems facing the world.

“G-77 is going to do whatever it can to save the institution,” said Dr German Garcia-Duran, the Chairman of the G- 77 Nairobi Chapter. “UNEP is important for the developing world, particularly for Africa. Many Asian countries also need much of UNEP. And so do many Latin American countries. And of course, the Europeans also need UNEP. So (do) the North Americans, the Australians and the Japanese and so forth.”

Garcia-Duran had told IPS last Thursday that many developing countries had honoured their pledges to UNEP but that some other nations had not done so, which was “very unfortunate because it shows that some countries are not serious about the commitments they made.”

Unconfirmed sources at the conference told IPS that the United States and Britain were spearheading a campaign aimed at reforming UNEP with a view to reducing its spending and make it more efficient.

But representatives of developing countries, most of whom are members of G-77, say they prefer maintaining the status quo and strengthening UNEP rather than reducing its staff and budget.

“We are not going to allow any attempt by developed countries to downgrade UNEP,” said an Arab delegate who refused to be named. He said developing nations supported a commitment made late last year in Nairobi by then UN Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali to strenghten UNEP and the UN Centre on Human Settlements (HABITAT), also based here.

However, new UN Secretary General Kofi Annan pledged his commitment to reforming the UN system when he met U.S. President Bill Clinton in Washington last week and UNEP could be affected by the cuts this will entail.

UNEP has been achieving some progress towards becoming a leaner, fitter institution, according to Dowdeswell, who said spending on consultants and corporate contracts had declined by 74 percent from 1995 and a 9.7-percent reduction in management and administrative support costs was anticipated in 1996-1997.

“While this constitutes a good start, I know that it is not enough and I am personally committed to seeing that this trend accelerates and continues in 1997,” said Dowdeswell.

She also referred to a UNEP report, Global Environment Outlook: An Overview’, which she launched here on Monday, as one of UNEP’s major achievements.

The 1.5-million-dollar report examines issues ranging from land degradation in Africa and the crisis of timber reserves in Asia to the expected loss of at least 100,000 species from forested areas alone over the next 40 years in Latin America, and excessive energy consumption in the United States.

“Despite its laudable achievements, in the eyes of some, UNEP is perceived as a weak, unfocused organisation,” Dowdeswell said. “Many view UNEP as an organisation that has been marginalised over the years, losing much of its credibility, to a point where its continued existence, in its current form, is being questioned.”