-- Ask today's Expert: Nara Luvsan - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) --

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Nara Luvsan - UN Country Team Programming: Processes in Europe

Nara Luvsan is Senior Programme Officer with UNEP’s Regional Office for Europe. Her work mainly focuses on mainstreaming environmental concerns into national poverty reduction strategies, Millennium Development Goal implementation, and the policies and programmes of line ministries, especially in low-income countries in Europe and CIS. Her career spans a 20-year period: five with the government of Mongolia in contract management, change management and partnership building; 15 years with the World Bank, UNICEF, UNHCR and UNEP based both in multiple countries of the former Soviet Union managing teams and multi-million dollar programmes, as well as based in headquarters overseeing policy and programme planning, capacity building, partnership building, monitoring and evaluation. She has worked extensively on sustainable development and poverty reduction issues and she is an expert in UN reform and inter-agency partnership building. She also has considerable results-based planning and more...

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Number of questions: [4]

	Posted on 25/07/2008 14:44:30
Dear Nara, where can I get latest Global Environmental updates, I have been surfing the net for some time now and have not got much. Please treat as a matter of urgency
Comfort Oyewole (from Nigeria)

Hi again. You can try googling the Fourth GEO report, which is the latest global environmental outlook report. Also try 'follow-up to Millenium Assessment report'. IPCC website is also worth browsing through. Various UN economic commissions environment divisions and OECD/DAC environment directorate websites are useful. As for Europe, Eionet is a partnership network of the European Environment Agency and its member and cooperating countries. It consists of the EEA itself, five European Topic Centres (ETCs) and a network of around 900 experts from 37 countries in over 300 national environment agencies and other bodies dealing with environmental information. I hope this info is of some use for the column you have to write.

	Posted on 25/07/2008 12:04:39
Hi Nara, My Name is Comfort Oyewole from Nigeria. Nara I'm going to be needing your help a whole lot, I would like you to be my Mentor if you do not mind. I have just read your profile, I am a Planning Officer in an Agency here where I work with the same responsibilities as you have, Nara are you willing to help me please?
Comfort Oyewole (from Nigeria)

Dear Comfort, I understand that you work in the areas of UN reform, inter-agency collaboration and mainstreaming environment into national plans and strategies. I would be happy to share with you whatever knowledge, experience and lessons learned I have gathered in these areas. I am sure being on the ground in a country office You would have quite a lot to teach me. So, feel free to get in touch by e-mail (nara.luvsan@unep.ch).

	Posted on 25/07/2008 08:56:33
1.How environmental basic problems can manage if the problems of bread and butter still not solved. 2. As we know that fossil fuel is major culprit for global warming and other sorts of pollution than why not international community or organisation like UNEP, UNDP or many others...not trying to low down price of solar based cookers, solar light CFL etc .The country like India where price of such item is so high and even general publick wants to use it but this is out of his reach.
Manoj Jain (from India)

Dear Manoj, I personally do not wish to separate human survival, as you nicely put it as our bread and butter issues, from basic environmental issues. Every day we witness, hear and read stories that demonstrate the limportance of taking care of nature as a way of ensuring that we have still access to our food, water and unpolluted air. I believe basic survival and basic ‘environmental’ survival issues need to be looked at together and not separately. I would join you in your plea to make prices of “green energy” utilities such as solar based cookers etc. affordable. Without being an expert in alternative energy issues myself, I think that you would share with me the fact that currently prices of products you mentioned are affected by : - prices of inputs as other raw materials, wages, transportation costs etc. - the fact that these new technologies are still work in progress requiring huge ‘research and development’ costs that are absorbed to some extent in final goods - government policy on subsidy - international trade deals - people’s mentality ‘ why pay now more if previously we paid less’ I agree with you that the larger international community including UNEP, UNDP and other players can do much more in ensuring affordable access to services and products made of using alternative energy sources.

	Posted on 25/07/2008 07:19:32
What strategies do you propose for educating policy-makers in your aera of specialization?
Central for Environmental Education (from India)

I believe that policy-makers’ role is of paramount importance in effective delivery of UN assistance. Any strategy that ensures policy-makers become truly engaged partners of UN assistance programmes is likely to succeed. The UN, especially through its country teams, has lately made progress in involving decision makers in CCA/UNDAFs (Common Country Assessment/United Nations Development Assistance Framework). In many countries, partners from government and civil society have worked together with UN colleagues in Working Groups (e.g. environment, governance, poverty, basic social services, HIV/AIDS) to design and implement UN assistance in these areas. UNEP is an inseparable part of this CCA/UNDAF process and continues to make special effort in ensuring environmental sustainability considerations in wider UN work.

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