Poverty Environment Action

About Poverty-Environment Action

Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an overarching objective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The mainstreaming of poverty-environment objectives into policy, budgeting, programming, and investments by the United Nations Development Programme–United Nations Environment Programme (UNDP–UNEP) Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals, launched in 2018, and its predecessor entity, the UNDP–UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative, demonstrates how improved environmental sustainability can address this challenge and contribute to poverty eradication.

The focus for Poverty-Environment Action is on deepening and broadening poverty-environment mainstreaming and aligning finance and investment with poverty, environment, and climate objectives, in the face of the changing forms and conditions of poverty found in the world today.

Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals has embarked on eight full-fledged country projects — in Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Malawi, Mauritania, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nepal, and Rwanda — and six technical assistance efforts — in Indonesia, South Africa, and Tanzania; an establishment of the virtual platform; and via strategic partnerships with the Asian Development Bank, GIZ and UN Women, in which substantive gains had been made through Phase 2 (2014–2018) of the Poverty-Environment Initiative, and that had high potential to deliver on the shift in investments expected from Poverty-Environment Action.

The overall intended outcome for Poverty-Environment Action is "Strengthened integration of poverty-environment objectives into policies, plans, regulations, and investments of partner countries to accelerate delivery of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals."

Here's an overview of PEA success stories over the course of the project's implementation for the past two decades:

Poverty-Environment Action and the Blue Economy: The Potential Small-Medium Enterprises Have to Provide Innovative Financing, Protect the Oceans, and Generate Prosperity in Asia and the Pacific

Poverty-Environment Action in Bangladesh: The Social Protection Plans Guided by Environmental Data that Can Improve Vulnerable People’s Life

Poverty-Environment Action in Lao PDR: Strong Collaboration and Public-Private Partnerships as a Model of Success for Responsible Investment

Poverty-Environment Action in Malawi: The Key Role Data and Research Have Played to Advocate for the Environment and Spot Shortcomings

Poverty-Environment Action in Mozambique: 05000, the Power a Number Can Have in a Budget to Connect the Environment and a Better Quality of Life

Purpose and scope

The Poverty-Environment Action Helpdesk is a one-stop point of contact that provides stakeholders with centralized information services on the mainstreaming of poverty-environment objectives into policy, budgeting, programming, and investments, in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Focal Point Contacts

• Knowledge Management
  Le Le Lan, Knowledge Management and Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub
• Programme Management
  Jacinta Okwaro, Programme Management Officer and Africa Regional Support, Africa Regional Office, UNEP, Nairobi
• Partnerships
  Kenneth Kioi Ndung'u, Project Officer, Capacity Building Virtual Platform, UNEP, Nairobi