Environment and Sustainable Development - United Nations ...

Commission for Africa on the “Regional Integration
Indicators” project.
Links with the UN and Bretton Woods Institutions remain
strong and play an important role in the developmentrelated
work and information dissemination of UNU. The
main partners in working with UNU/WIDER in this regard
continue to be UN/DESA, UNDP and UNCTAD; other
key contributors to projects include IMF, ILO, World
Bank, UNHCR, OECD and ECLAC.
UNU undertakes a number of partnerships with other
UN agencies in the area of social and economic
development:
• The Director of UNU/WIDER participated as an observer
in the 40th Session of the Board of the United Nations
Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in
Geneva in March, and subsequently discussed possible
collaboration with the UNRISD Director.
• A UNU/WIDER Deputy Director made a presentation to
the Division for Social Policy and Development of
UN/DESA on the economic rationale for financing social
development.
• UNU/WIDER will undertake a research project for
UN/DESA on innovative sources for development
finance.
• The World Income Inequality Database continues to be
updated and disseminated by UNU/WIDER in
cooperation with UNDP.
The area of environment and sustainable development has
numerous examples of UNU partnerships with other UN
agencies:
• UNU played a key role in the Bishkek Global Mountain
Summit, an event co-organized by UNU, FAO, UNEP,
UNESCO, the Government of Kyrgyzstan, Swiss Agency
for Development and Cooperation, Aga Khan
Development Network, and other UN and nongovernmental
organizations.
• UNU/IAS acted as University-wide coordinating agency
for the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD), and the UNU/IAS Director led
the UNU delegation to three WSSD Preparatory
Committee meetings.
• At the WSSD, UNU launched a Type II Partnership on
“Inter-linkages between Multilateral Environmental
Agreements” in partnership with UNEP, the Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA), European Union, South
Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP)
ASEAN and Japanese Ministry of Education.
• At WSSD, UNU launched a Type II International
Partnership for Sustainable Development in Mountain
Regions with FAO, UNEP and the Swiss Agency for
Development and Cooperation.
• UNU/BIOLAC increased contacts with UNESCO to
leverage its experience for enhancing the UNU/BIOLAC
bio-ethics project, and plans several joint activities with
the UNESCO-Centro Internacional de Capacitación
Científica-Simón Bolivar programme.
• The UNU/IAS Urban Ecosystems Programme coorganized
an expert meeting with UNESCO’s Man and
Biosphere Programme and WHO in Paris in March and
produced recommendations to the parallel Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment meeting on how to incorporate
urban ecosystems in the assessment.
• In June, the UNU/IAS Urban Ecosystems Programme
organized a workshop with WHO and ASEAN in
Malaysia to disseminate its work to the WHO Healthy
Cities Programme.
• The UNU/IAS Project on Biodiversity co-organized a
meeting of experts with UNEP and SCBD in Malaysia in
October to consider the scope of the ways and means of
implementing Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-
Sharing (ABS).
• UNU is supporting the UN World Water Development
Report (WWDR), a major, multi-partner, UNESCObased
initiative to assess and report biennially on the state
of the world’s freshwater resources.
• UNU/INWEH participates in a number of water related
capacity development programmes and networks in
cooperation with UNESCO, UNDP, UNEP, the World
Bank and others.
• UNU/INWEH is a member of the newly inaugurated UN
Inter-Agency Committee on Freshwater (“UN-Water”).
• During the WSSD, UNU/INWEH assisted UN/DESA
with the coordination of the water file.
• The UNU Food and Nutrition Programme works with a
number of UN system agencies in its projects, including
FAO (as co-sponsor of INFOODS), UNICEF, WHO, the
Asian Development Bank, UNESCO, UNDP and WFP.
Partners in the UN System
• Asian Development Bank
• Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
• Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC)
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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