Tackling the three planetary crises requires enhancing capacities and mechanisms to enhance policy coherence at all levels. Policy coherence involves systematically promoting mutually reinforcing policy actions across governments and agencies, fostering an integrated approach to the achievement of sustainable development goals its three dimensions: economic, environmental and social. Enhanced policy coherence establishes the conditions necessary for achieving policy integration for effective environmental governance for delivering on the environmental dimension of sustainable development.
UNEP is the custodian of SDG indicator 17:14:1, which measures ‘the number of countries with mechanisms in place to enhance policy coherence for sustainable development. This indicator assists in the promotion of policy coherence and good governance, fostering synergies across the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).
UNEP plays a critical role in advancing policy coherence through:
- Promoting policy coherence as an instrumental tool to achieve more integrated, interconnected and effective environmental governance and sustainable development, particularly through promoting sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 17.14.1. UNEP works with member states and the wider UN system to support the integrated implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), MEAs, and other environmental multilateral agreements.
- Providing sectoral guidance to assist member states apply policy coherence for environmental governance, pursuing synergies across the climate, biodiversity and pollution agendas and promoting linkages with environmental rule of law, including on emerging issues.
- Develop country-tailored or global assessments, toolkits, knowledge products and guidance on operationalizing inclusive environmental policymaking that supports the engagement of non-government stakeholders, supporting the engagement of youth, women and indigenous people for effective environmental governance.
- Organize awareness raising sessions, trainings and peer learning initiatives that enhance exchanges of best practice on policy coherence for environmental governance promoting North-South and South-South and Triangular cooperation. For example, UNEP coordinates knowledge exchange platforms, including the Global Policy Coherence Network co-hosted by UNEP and OECD.
Important Resources
Toolkits, resources and publications
Workshops
Videos
