Government institutions, public expenditure and the role of development partners: meeting the new environmental challenges of the developing world

“Focus on ways of improving levels of recurrent funding (through the budget process) and use all avenues of dialogue within General Budget Support arrangements ...”

These are among several key messages aimed at governments and development agencies, emanating from a recent joint funded study carried out by the UK based Overseas Development Institute (ODI).  The report summarises the conclusions of four country case studies completed during 2007 which examined linkages between environmental policy, public expenditure and different development cooperation modalities in Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania. 

The good news is that, in all four study countries, budgetary positions have improved significantly in the last three years as a result of increased domestic revenues, increased flows in the form of General Budget Support and debt restructuring. Yet despite this budgetary context, environmental agencies still have strong incentives to pursue financing from projects or user fees and charges, all of which carry significant negative side effects.  

Read more
http://www.odi.org.uk

For further information and comment: David Smith (David.Smith [at] unep.org); Christian Alix (christian_alix [at] acdi-cida.gc.ca; Gareth Martin (g-martin [at] dfid.gov.uk).

The Working Group’s purpose is to become a clearing house to identify and inform PEP members and other stakeholders about shared opportunities to use Ecosystem Services (ES) and Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) to promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in general and sustainable development and poverty alleviation in particular. Participants come both from donor agencies and conservation NGOs, with occasional guest contributors at specific events or activities.

Proposed 2008 Activities:

1. A PEP ES/PES Working group activity at the COP9 of the CBD (May 19 to 30 2008, Bonn)
2. A PEP ES/PES Working group activity at the Financing for Development Conference (November 29 to December 2 2008, Doha)
3. A PEP ES/PES Working Group activity at the 14th PEP

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The Poverty Environment Partnership's 12th meeting was held in Washington DC on 19-21 November 2007.

Overall theme for the proceedings: "INFRASTRUCTURE, GROWTH AND POVERTY REDUCTION: THE ROLE OF ECOSYSTEMS AND NATURAL RESOURCES"

Meeting Minutes (DOC)

Registration Form (DOC)
Agenda (as of 16 November, PDF)
Participants List (XLS)

Presentations by Day:
19 November
20 November
21 November

Send your inquiries or requests to the PEP Web Administrator.

Related reading:
REDD and Poverty: The social implications of reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries (summary)

The PEP/MDG economic analysis was successfully presented at the UN World Summit on 14 September 2005 in New York City (http://www.undp.org/pei/). As a follow-up to this event and the accompanying publications, and under an agreement with UNDP/UNOPS, IUCN-The World Conservation Union has compiled this bibliography of case studies and other documents, building on material included in the PEP report by the late Prof. David Pearce of University College London.

The case studies (or syntheses of cases) were sought to illustrate the linkages between poverty and environment and are organized thematically as outlined in the table of contents. In addition, documents which focus on specific MDGs are highlighted.

Download the bibliography (844 KB, PDF)

The following documents are from the workshop "Development Effective in Practice: Applying the Paris Declaration to Advancing Gender Equality, Environmental Sustainability and Human Rights" held in Dublin, Ireland on 26-27 April 2007. These have been made available as background reading material for the 11th PEP Meeting in Copenhagen.

Dublin Workshop Concept (PDF)
Dublin Workshop Agenda (PDF)
Note on the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and Implications on Environmental Sustainability (DOC)

The emergence of the concept of payment for ecosystem services during the late 1990s has raised expectations among rural natural resource managers, local and national authorities, public utilities and donor organizations alike, that ecosystem conservation can be achieved through popular payments rather than through unpopular measures of command and control.

Late 2005, Danida asked researchers from the natural resources and poverty research unit at Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) to undertake a review of experiences to date regarding payments for ecosystem services with particular emphasis on identifying pro-poor options for development assistance support.

This report summarizes the main findings of this review, including a list of approximately 200 references collected as part of the study, and identifies four main options for development assistance in support of pro-poor payments for ecosystem services.

This document is background reading material for the PEP 11th meeting, to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark on 18 to 20 June 2007.

Download the report (441 KB, PDF)
DIIS page