Task Team on Governance and Capacity Development for Natural Resources and Environmental Management

Background

Environmental institutions in developing countries need to be strengthened  - this was one of the conclusions of OECD Development and Environment Ministers at their joint meeting in April 2006. Consequently, supporting the capacity development of national environmental institutions in developing countries became one of the key objectives of harmonised efforts by OECD Development Co-operation and Environmental agencies. This objective is in line with the commitment made jointly by donors and partner countries in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness to “…continue to develop the specialised technical and policy capacity necessary for environmental analysis and for enforcement of legislation.”

OECD Development and Environment Ministers also recognized that natural resources play a key role for the eradication of poverty. In particular, the poorest countries and the poorest people, especially women and children, rely heavily on natural resources for their livelihoods. Yet only if managed smartly can natural resources generate and sustain growth and thus support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. To strengthen natural resource management in the context of partner countries’ development policies and plans was therefore another priority target set forth by Development and Environment Ministers in their Joint Meeting in 2006.

A Joint Development-Environment Task Team on Governance and Capacity Development for Natural Resources and Environmental Management was established in November 2006 to carry out the work on strengthening the capacities of environmental institutions and on integrating natural resource and environmental management into development policies and plans.

The main ongoing activities of the Task Team:

The Task Team is developing Policy Guidance on priority Capacity Development for Environment areas:

• Greening Development Planning - A Review of Country Case Studies for Making the Economic Case for Improved Management of Environment and Natural Resources (led by Sweden)
• Integrating Public Environmental Expenditure within Multi-year Budgetary Frameworks (led by the OECD Secretariat - with support by the Overseas Development Institute, ODI)
• Assessing Environmental Management Capacity: Towards a Common Reference Framework (led by OECD Secretariat)

The results of this work will provide inputs for the update of the 1994 DAC Guidelines on Capacity Development for Environment, to be finalized in 2011.

 

The Task Team is also carrying out a Survey of Environmental Agencies’ development co-operation activities in developing countries. The Survey takes stock of the activities carried out by Environment Ministries and Agencies in OECD countries to support developing coutries in their efforts to improve environmental and natural resource management policies and practices.