UNEP is working with the governments of Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Colombia and Guyana to strengthen the capacities of national institutions for coherent and integrated implementation and monitoring of the environmental dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This project is being implemented since 2018 and will be concluded in 2021. The project “Towards coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals” is funded by the United Nations Development Account (UNDA project 1819Q). 

The project led to enhanced understanding of environmental data for measuring progress towards the SDGs and improved policy coherence for sustainable development. UNEP’s national level intervention demonstrates its comparative advantage in institutional support and linking science to policy with regards to SDGs. The project also assisted governments in Covid-19 recovery responses related to health and environment.  

The project was implemented by UNEPs Africa Office, Asia and the Pacific Office, Latin America and the Caribbean Office, the Law Division and the Science Division. The results and lessons learned will be compiled in four case studies which will be published soon and shared with other countries and entities. 
 

Objectives of the project 

The project was set out to: 

  • Enhance technical capacities of national focal points in relevant institutions, including areas of development, finance, agriculture, fisheries, and environment, to deliver on the environmental dimensions of the 2030 Agenda in a coordinated, integrated and evidence-based manner. 

  • Enhance technical capacities of national statistical and data-collection institutions to regularly produce comprehensive sets of environment statistics, data and information that integrate Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) related data. 

  • Share lessons learned and knowledge acquired by target countries with a wider set of countries through inter- and intra-regional networking and cooperation, thereby creating the basis of a South-South Cooperation case study on the use of integrated approaches for coherent policy planning and implementation.  

Project approach 

UNEP Regional Offices engaged with the respective partner governments to identify project objectives and priorities. UNEP analyzed the data and monitoring situation of environmental issues which provided the basis for implementation of the project and identifying tools for integrated approaches. UNEP, with the government entities in charge of environmental monitoring and/or sustainable development and partner agencies such as UNDP or IUCN convened national government entities and stakeholder in close coordination with Resident Coordinators and statistical offices. The activities UNEP conducted were tailor-made and fit-for purpose and adapted to country political and soci-economic contexts. Activities included technical trainings, subnational and national workshops, awareness raising and outreach and covid-19 response. UNEP also tested the methodology for the SDG indicator 17.14.1 ‘Mechanisms in place to enhance policy coherence of sustainable development‘. 

Links & Resources 

Related content 

https://www.unep.org/resources/report/measuring-progress-towards-achieving-environmental-dimension-sdgs 

Related Sustainable Development Goals