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About UNDA Project 1819AE

United Nations Development Account (UNDA)

UNDA is a capacity development programme of the United Nations Secretariat. Through UNDA projects, UNECE, in collaboration with other UN agencies and programmes, supports and promotes joint interventions aimed at addressing development challenges, tackling transboundary issues and enhancing regional cooperation.

The project “Evidence-based environmental governance and sustainable environmental policies in support of the 2030 Agenda in South-East Europe” builds on the third-cycle EPRs conducted in the countries of South-Eastern Europe in 2014-2019 and covers Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

The third EPRs of Montenegro and Serbia were prepared in 2014. Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina were reviewed in 2017. The third EPR of North Macedonia is being carried out in 2018–2019.

The project will assist these countries in formulating actions based on their third cycle EPRs and implementing their EPR recommendations related to SDGs.

Objective

The objective is to enhance the national capacities of the countries to assess the most critical aspects and priority needs in their environmental governance and policies.

The project activities will also increase national capacities to develop and integrate environmental policies into sector-specific strategies aimed at contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

Project partners

The primary partners of the project are the ministries involved in environmental issues, together with sectoral ministries responsible for agriculture, energy, industry, mining or transport, the inspection authorities responsible for environmental enforcement, NGOs, the private sector and academia.

The project is implemented in cooperation with UNEP, UNDP and the United Nations Country Teams in beneficiary countries.

Project activities at national level

The project will assist countries to conduct a review and a needs assessment of the implementation of the recommendations coming from their EPRs in line with relevant SDGs. Further, it will facilitate the development of a national action plan or policy packages to implement the EPR recommendations related to SDGs.

National workshops will be organized throughout the project to discuss the results of the review and needs assessment and to review the national action plan or policy packages.

Project activities at subregional level

A subregional policy seminar will be organized to exchange experience on implementation of national action plans or policy packages. In addition, a concluding subregional event will allow presentation of an overview of the environmental challenges in South-Eastern Europe. It will facilitate the sharing of best practices in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Outcomes

The key outcomes of the project are national action plans or policy packages. Countries may choose between working on a national action plan or policy package(s). National action plans would allow countries to make focused efforts to address SDGs covered by their EPRs. Policy packages would enable the development of a strategic document or a legislative act directed at implementing one or several EPR recommendations.

Project document (PDF)