Environmental Management Group

Stocktaking exercise

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.

Related Documents:

Stocktaking Terms of Reference