Stocktaking
The senior officials meeting of the Environment Management Group (EMG) in October 2007 considered several issues of importance to the way in which the UN system supports the implementation of the intergovernmental environmental agenda. Amongst the issues was a recommendation issued by participants of the High Level Forum on the United Nations Reform Initiatives, Geneva, 3-4 July 2006, to prepare a report which provides an overview of UN system environmental operations, collaboration, and coordination. In response EMG agreed to undertake a stocktaking exercise which would provide an overview of UN system environmental operations, collaboration, and coordination, identify constraints and lessons and suggests areas where EMG can play an active role. A stocktaking report is being finalized to facilitate knowledge sharing and reflection in support of concerted efforts to enhance the coherence in environmental management and governance within the UN system. The report provides information on core environmental areas and coordination mechanisms of the EMG members and document evidence of inter-agency collaboration in designing, implementing, and evaluating environmental activities.
The EMG High Level Forum on the UN Reform Initiatives (Geneva 3 - 4 July, 2006), agreed to undertake a stock-taking exercise which will generate a comprehensive overview of collaborative initiatives and actions of the Organizations of the UN System in the area of the environment at the global, regional and national levels. The stocktaking was needed to identify the core activities and areas of EMG members and to identify the key areas in which agencies and organizations were working. The Forum suggested the following as the purpose and parameters of the stocktaking:
a) The stocktaking exercise was needed to identify the core activities and areas of EMG members and to identify the key areas in which agencies and organizations were working;
b) The exercise should also identify topics which interface with the environmental agenda;
c) The EMG should ensure that its work contributed to adding value to the work of each agency or organization;
d) A conceptual framework for working in a more proactive manner together was needed;
e) The EMG should ensure that what it did was relevant at both the global, regional and country levels;
f) The EMG could add value by focusing on major current and emerging issues;
g) The members of EMG, with the assistance of the secretariat, should generate a menu of options outlining the issues on which EMG wanted to focus, particularly those issues where the greatest number of EMG members had a key interest and where there was need for further attention;
The Chair established a Task Force (on which representatives of UNDP, WHO, UNITAR, WMO, UNIDO, UNESCO, UNFCCC, UNECE, UNESCAP, UNISDR, RAMSAR serve) to oversee the exercise which is currently on-going. The report of the Task Force will provide the basis for the full meeting of the EMG in the second half of 2007.