On the inter-governmental level, the recommendations
contained in the Secretary-General’s
report were considered by UNEP's Governing
Council at its 20th session, the Commission
on Human Settlements at its 17th session,
and the General Assembly at its 53rd session.
UNEP's Governing Council adopted decision
20/17 on 5 February 1999 entitled, 'Views
of the Governing Council on the report of
the Secretary-General on Environment and Human
Settlements'. The Governing Council, inter
alia, expressed its support for the proposal
of the Secretary-General regarding the establishment
of an EMG for the coordination of the environmental
and human settlements activities of the UN
system, and encouraged the Secretary-General
to undertake consultations with the members
of the ACC to develop its scope, appropriate
criteria for membership and working methods
in a flexible and cost-effective manner for
its expeditious establishment. The Commission
on Human Settlements, in its resolution 17/6
of 14 May 1999, similarly supported the establishment
of EMG.
The General Assembly, having debated the
recommendations at its regular 53rd session,
resumed its consideration of the report in
open-ended informal consultations, and approved
by consensus a draft resolution on 28 June
1999. Subsequently, the resolution, submitted
by the President of the General Assembly,
was formally adopted on 28 July 1999 (A/RES/53/242).
In the resolution, the Assembly, inter alia,
expresses support for the establishment of
EMG, and requested the Secretary-General to
develop, in consultation with the Member States
and the ACC, the mandate, terms of reference,
appropriate criteria for membership and flexible,
cost-effective working methods, and submit
them the Assembly at its 54th session for
consideration.
On the inter-agency level, IACSD at its 13th
session noted the decision 20/17 of the Governing
Council and the Task Force's recommendation
for the establishment of EMG, as contained
in the Secretary-General's report. IACSD agreed
that EMG, if properly designed, can offer
an innovative "problem solving"
mechanism that has a potential for contributing
added value to existing inter-agency mechanisms,
and made a number of recommendations with
regard to its establishment, including its
terms of reference, criteria for membership
and possible methods of work (ACC/1999/1).
IACSD’s recommendations were subsequently
considered by the Organisational Committee
of the ACC (OC/ACC) (ACC/1999/2)
and the ACC. ACC (ACC/1999/4)
noted IACSD's recommendations and agreed that
further consultations be conducted by the
Executive Director with ACC members regarding
EMG's terms of reference, criteria for membership
and methods of work, fully taking into account
the views of the IACSD. In this connection,
particular reference was made in ACC to the
recommendations of IACSD that the EMG should
not duplicate existing mechanisms, particularly
IACSD; it should not be a standing body but
demand-driven, and its work should be brought
to the attention of the Secretary-General
and/or ACC through IACSD.
IACSD at its 14th session expressed strong
interest in working with UNEP in designing
specific modalities for the EMG, and underscored
the necessity of the UN system agreeing on
a common view on EMG. In order to expedite
inter-agency consultations aimed at arriving
at such a common view.
The terms
of reference for EMG were endorsed by
IACSD at its 15th session (ACC/2000/1),
and subsequently by the ACC at its first Regular
Session of 2000 (ACC/2000/4).
International
Environmental Governance
Against the backdrop of the preparations
for the World
Summit on Sustainable Development, the
UNEP Governing Council at its twenty-first
session in February 2001 adopted decision
21/21 on international
environmental governance, which established
an Open-ended Intergovernmental Group of Ministers
or Their Representatives (IGM) to undertake
a comprehensive policy-oriented assessment
of existing institutional weaknesses as well
as future needs and options for strengthened
international environmental governance. The
IGM was requested to present a report containing
analysis and options to the Governing Council/Global
Ministerial Environment Forum in February
2002, which would provide the outcome of its
discussions to the preparatory body for the
World Summit on Sustainable Development as
a contribution to the Summit.
Among the main issues addressed by the IGM
was improved coherence in international environmental
policy-making (the role and structure of the
Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment
Forum), improved coordination among and effectiveness
of multilateral environmental agreements,
capacity-building, technology transfer and
country-level coordination for the environment
pillar of sustainable development, and enhanced
coordination across the United Nations system
- specifically the role of the EMG.
As reflected in the report
of the IGM, adopted by the Governing Council
at its seventh special session in February
2002, the IGM discussed the EMG in terms of
its role as an instrument to enhance policy
coordination across the environmental activities
of the United Nations system, its potential
for bringing the environment into the mainstream
of relevant activities of the United Nations
system, and its relationship with intergovernmental
processes (the UNEP Governing Council/Global
Ministerial Environment Forum, the Commission
on Sustainable Development, and other forums
in the United Nations system).
The report of the IGM states that, “taking
advantage of its high-level and cross-cutting
environmental perspective, and its coordination
role on environmental matters in the United
Nations system, the Governing Council/Global
Ministerial Environment Forum could engage
in periodic stock taking and, inter alia,
review synergies and linkages undertaken between
multilateral environmental agreements, as
well as review reports of the Environment
Management Group and progress in inter-agency
collaboration”, and, “For the
Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment
Forum to effectively play its policy role,
it requires an instrument at the inter-agency
level to enhance policy coordination across
the environmental activities of the United
Nations system. The Environment Management
Group is such an instrument and should be
charged with reporting annually to the Forum,
taking into account the provisions of General
Assembly resolution
54/217, as well as on
specific issues arising from the work of the
United Nations system in the environmental
area on which the Forum could make recommendations
on the work of the Environment Management
Group”.
Updated information on the international environmental governance process can be found on UNEP Heaquarter's web-site.
World
Summit on Sustainable Development
The World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)
met from 26 August – 4 September 2002,
in Johannesburg, South Africa. The WSSD’s
goal, according to UN General Assembly resolution
55/199, was to hold a ten-year review
of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) at the Summit level to
reinvigorate global commitment to sustainable
development.
WSSD also negotiated and adopted two main
documents: the Plan
of Implementation and the
Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development.
The Plan of Implementation’s section
on the ‘Institutional framework for
sustainable development: Role of international
institutions’, stresses the need for
international institutions both within and
outside the United Nations system, including
international financial institutions, World
Trade Organization (WTO) and the Global
Environment Facility (GEF), to enhance,
within their mandates, their cooperative efforts
to promote effective and collective support
to the implementation of Agenda 21 at all
levels; and enhance the effectiveness and
coordination of international institutions
to implement Agenda 21, the outcomes of WSSD,
relevant sustainable development aspects of
the Millennium Declaration, the Monterrey
Consensus and the outcomes of the fourth
WTO
ministerial meeting, held in Doha in November
2001.
The Plan of Implementation goes on to request
the Secretary-General, utilizing the CEB,
including through informal collaborative efforts,
to further promote system-wide inter-agency
cooperation and coordination on sustainable
development, to take appropriate measures
to facilitate exchange of information, and
to continue to keep the Economic
and Social Council and the Commission
informed of actions being taken to implement
Agenda 21.
It called on strengthened cooperation among
UNEP and other United Nations bodies and specialized
agencies, the Bretton Woods institutions and
WTO, within their mandates. It further specified
that UNEP, UN-Habitat,
the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and
the United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), within their mandates, should strengthen
their contribution to sustainable development
programmes and the implementation of Agenda
21 at all levels, particularly in the area
of promoting capacity-building.
The Plan of Implementation also stressed
that the strengthening of the international
institutional framework for sustainable development
is an evolutionary process. It is necessary
to keep under review relevant arrangements;
identify gaps; eliminate duplication of functions;
and continue to strive for greater integration,
efficiency and coordination of the economic,
social and environmental dimensions of sustainable
development aiming at the implementation of
Agenda 21.
The Plan of Implementation also called on
the international community to fully implement
the outcomes of decision I on
international environmental governance
adopted by the UNEP Governing Council at its
seventh special session.
