Multilateral Aid Review summary - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

UNEP is the designated UN systems entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional level. Its mandate is to encourage the development of a consensus on environmental policy by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community.

	comment
Contribution to UK development objectives	Weak
	+	UNEP plays a unique role in keeping the global environment under review, supporting and underpinning the achievement of the MDGs and is the lead agency on achieving MDG7.
	_	As a normative agency, UNEP has a low presence at the country level (but works through UNDP offices).
	_	Demonstrating UNEP’s delivery against development and humanitarian objectives is difficult.
	_	There is little, if any, evidence on how UNEP decides to allocate programme resources.
	+	UNEP’s leadership is pushing for more challenging objectives aimed at meeting development objectives.
	+	UNEP has a policy on gender mainstreaming
Organisational strengths	Weak
	_	There is no evidence on how UNEP challenges its partners to think about value for money and there is little or no evidence on how UNEP controls administrative costs or achieves savings.
	+	The joint UNEP / UNDP Poverty and Environment Partnership is one of the best used examples of how UN agencies can work positively in partnership.
	+	UNEP has a strong partnership with civil society, the private sector and other major stakeholders.
	_	UNEP is perceived as having a relatively low level of country ownership.
	+	UNEP has introduced a process of Results Based Management and its budget is decided upon in an open and transparent manner.
	_	UNEP suffers from a lack of predictable funding
	_	There is little or no evidence on how UNEP promotes accountability in its partners
	_	Accessing information on UNEP projects is challenging
Capacity for positive change	Likely
	+	Over the last 4 years, UNEP has improved internal systems and processes as well as the global effectiveness and role of UNEP.
	+	Rio+20 presents a significant opportunity to agree measures to strengthen and reform UNEP in 2012.
	_	Stronger reform measures are still required to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of UNEP.