UNEP builds and maintains partnerships with other UN organizations around specific issues areas, sometimes within the framework of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), which the New York Office has often helped to develop. Examples of collaborative activities include:
UNEP and the Food and Agricultural Organization
(FAO) are collaborating on agro-forestry and biodiversity issues, and have worked together on activities in the context of the 2002 International Year of the Mountains, and on the UN Atlas of the Oceans. FAO and UNEP also jointly host the interim Secretariat for the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (PIC).
UNEP and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) work together in issues such as depleted uranium and marine pollution.
UNEP and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) continue to work closely to address children's environmental health issues (based on their March 1997 MoU). In 2002 UNEP-UNICEF-WHO issued a joint publication entitled "Children in the New Millennium: Environmental Impact on Health" during the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children.
UNEP and the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and UNEP and the World Trade Organization (WTO)
work together to ensure a more comprehensive approach to addressing the nexus between trade and environment, including through the UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity-Building Task Force on Environment and Trade.
UNEP and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are renewing efforts to translate UNEP's environmental policy guidance role into field-level application. UNEP worked closely with UNDP in the preparatory process for theWorld Summit on Sustainable Development. Furthermore, UNDP'sDrylands Development Centre moved to Nairobi and will have close links to UNEP. UNEP is also an implementing partner in the Global Environment Facility (GEF), along with UNDP and the World Bank. Most recently, UNEP joined the UNDP-chaired United Nations Development Group (UNDG).
UNEP and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) work together on such issues as water; sustainable tourism, including a tour operators initiative (with the World Tourism Organization); oceans, including within the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), (with other UN partners such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO)); the links between cultural and biological diversity and the common threats facing them; and a joint project on youth, sustainable consumption and lifestyles
UNEP and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN/HABITAT) are continuing to strengthen programmatic linkages and cooperation beyond long-standing initiatives such as the Sustainable Cities Programme, particularly through the work of the UNEP/Habitat Joint Unit. UNEP and UN-Habitat have also worked in partnership with regard to emergency responses and in post-conflict situations (i.e. the Balkans Task Force, and missions to Mozambique, Guinea, China, Turkey and Venezuela).
UNEP and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) continue to collaborate in the area of cleaner production, including through the support of national cleaner production centers.
UNEP and the United Nations
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA): work together on response to environmental emergencies.
UNEP and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) signed a MoU in February 2001 to establish the terms and conditions for UNOPS to provide services to UNEP.
UNEP and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) collaborate on population, poverty and environment linkages (based on a 1999 MoU).
UNEP and the United Nations University (UNU) work together on such issues as reducing the impact of environmental emergencies through early warning and preparedness: the case of the 1997-98 El Niño.
UNEP and the World Bank are both implementing partners in the GEF, along with UNDP. UNEP and the World Bank also work together on issues such as financing for sustainable development with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
UNEP and the World Health Organization (WHO) are working together on a number of initiatives to combat the increasing threat of environmentally linked diseases (based on their August 1999 MoU), including collaboration on the meetings of Health and Environment Ministers of the Americas, of Europe, and of Africa. UNEP is also working closely with WHO in the field of chemical safety, within the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), an intersectoral coordinated and scientifically based programme of International Labour Organization (ILO), UNEP and WHO. UNEP (with the UNEP NYO playing a lead role) also collaborates with WHO and UNICEF in the field of children's environmental health, particularly in the context of the WHO-led Healthy Environments for Children Alliance.
UNEP and WHO are also core partners in a Canadian-led partnership on strengthening health and environment linkages, which was launched at WSSD (and in which the UNEP NYO has played a significant role). The initiative, which is completing its design-phase, aims to harness knowledge on health and environment linkages to influence policy and decision-making.
UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) collaborate in the context of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which they jointly established in 1988 to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change. UNEP and WMO also work together on ozone layer assessment reports.
