Environment and Security Initiative (envsec)
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NEWS FROM THE SECRETARIATnetworking and building partnershipsPartnerships on the country level, both in the regions and internationally are absolutely essential for the success of the Initiative. In the countries, ENVSEC first of all links with the national Ministries of the Environment and Foreign Affairs or their equivalents. Interactions are maintained both through visits and consultations, ad-hoc working groups, field missions of UNDP and OSCE in the countries, and briefings for permanent representatives in Vienna, Geneva and Nairobi. Twelve of the 14 participating countries have now appointed their official ENVSEC focal points, usually representing Ministries of both the Environment and Foreign Affairs (Annex 5). Where projects become operational on the ground level, planning and monitoring is done in close coordination with national focal points and/ or experts appointed on their behalf for individual components of the ENVSEC regional work programmes. To ensure that other key governmental departments (such as departments of the Interior, Defence, Emergency response, Industry etc.) and civil society are involved in the discussions and implementation, ENVSEC encourages the establishment of national Working Groups, where possible facilitated by country representations and field missions of UNDP and OSCE. Cooperation and coordination is maintained with regional processes such as REAP in Central Asia, Regional Environmental Reconstruction Programme for South-Eastern Europe (REReP), EECCA Environmental Strategy and the Environment for Europe process altogether (including regular reporting to the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe Task Force meetings). The network of Regional Environmental Centres is also regularly involved in ENVSEC activities and events. Among the major pan-European organizations that ENVSEC is working with is UNECE, with good practical cooperation on a case-by-case basis e.g. in Central Asia as well as in general with respect to UNECE-hosted international conventions. Those include the Aarhus convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (participatory assessments, support to media and civil society, Aarhus centres), the Helsinki Convention on Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents (assessing and reducing risks from industrial pollution e.g. in Central Asia and South-Eastern Europe), the Helsinki Convention on Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (management of shared water resources) and Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in Transboundary Context (national pilots on implementation of strategic environmental assessment). The recently signed OSCE-UNECE Memorandum of Understanding, which covers also an environmental dimension, further strengthens potential for cooperation. The ENVSEC co-operation with IAEA has also been strengthened. Operational cooperation already took place in 2004 in the framework of the Ferghana valley in-depth assessment. Currently an exchange of letters aiming at an agreement of cooperation between IAEA and OSCE is being finalized. The agreement will structure cooperation in the field with the Agency in the work ENVSEC partners and NATO are planning on radioactive waste management. A number of organisations active in research and implementation in the environment and security domains have been involved in advisory and consultative capacity in the ENVSEC work (e.g. Adelphi Research in Berlin, International Institute for Sustainable Development in Winnipeg and Geneva, Swisspeace in Berne, Universities, Regional Environmental Centres of South Caucasus, Central Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, nodes of UNEP’s GRID network). The International Court of Justice has applied to the ENVSEC partners for joining the partnership. The Partners are currently evaluating the application. Others, such as the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability, have expressed interest in building cooperation. ENVSEC values and welcomes such partnerships and will do its best to build and maintain them. An ad-hoc advisory panel with donors and cooperating organisations was held in Geneva in September 2004. Thirty representatives from the donor and recipient governments, research, non-governmental and other organisations shared their impressions and experience and gave useful advice to the ENVSEC partners. The next advisory panel meeting will be organized in June 2005. Finally, UNEP is developing a worldwide initiative on Environment, Peace and Security, where ENVSEC-Europe and its network will be important elements and contributors. Consultations were held with both UNEP Headquarters and Regional Offices (Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Africa, West Asia) who count on ENVSEC’s experience, ideas and support. Environment and security assessments in the Great African Lakes areas as well as in the Circumpolar Arctic are likely to follow soon. Increasing visibility To increase visibility of the Initiative itself and, more importantly, environment and security issues at stake, ENVSEC closely cooperates with international media and participates in important relevant events. During 2004 it was featured in the international media and publications such as (please see Annex 2 for details):
ENVSEC was presented at numerous meetings and events including high-profile Conference on Environment, Security and Sustainability in The Hague, May 2004, and the ‘Environment for Europe’ Ministerial Conference for EECCA countries in Tbilisi in November 2004 (please see Annex 1 for a full account). A new ENVSEC brochure was printed and widely distributed in English and Russian. Also the assessment report for the Southern Caucasus received remarkable attention. ENVSEC background papers were circulated in South-Eastern Europe (mining), the Caucasus (regional assessment) and Central Asia (Ferghana assessment). Renovation of the web-site, to contain all information resources produced by the Initiative, will be completed in March 2005 (www.envsec.org). Publicity in the regions is maintained through national and regional presence, visits and meetings in the countries, and through publications in the local media. Examples of the latter include the already mentioned regional chapters in Armenia Now and ‘Caucasus Environment’, local media coverage in connection with the launch of the Caucasus assessment in Tbilisi, and in relation to the Central Asian regional festival of environmental journalism in Tashkent. The publicity work will continue in 2005 both on the international and the local level. The nearest opportunity will be the launch of the Ferghana in-depth assessment in May 2005. ENVSEC also considers to continue cooperation with international television, for instance for producing another documentary now looking at selected environment and security issues rather than the programme itself. A mobile international exhibition featuring ENVSEC will be prepared in cooperation with Adelphi Research. Resource mobilisation and fundingResource mobilisation has been among top priorities during the year 2004 as funds have been clearly needed to fuel the work programme. To-date the Initiative has generated considerable interest among donors. Around USD 2 million have been already made available for activities in 2004-2005 from Austria, Canada, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, and negotiations are under way with these and other donors to extend support to cover additional activities emerging from work with the regions. A formal dialogue with the European Commission takes place in early 2005. UNDP is mobilising additional funding through the GEF for projects in Central Asia and South-Eastern Europe. Finland has seconded a staff member for the Programme Coordination Unit at UNEP in Geneva starting in January 2005. All ENVSEC partners provide matching contributions in-kind (staff time) and in-cash. An allocation of funds per project is regularly approved by the ENVSEC board based on submissions from the programme’s partners. Project formulation follows the original ENVSEC work programme as well as priorities emerging from first-stage and in-depth assessments, elaboration of regional work programmes as well as occasional ad-hoc requests, which are in-line with the overall strategy and regional priorities. A directory of approved and operational projects is included in the Annex 3. Financial reports on the allocation and use of funds are provided by ENVSEC Programme Management Unit at the end of the financial year. ANNEX 1: Attended and organized meetings
* not included are regular or ad hoc briefings for Resident Representatives in Vienna, Geneva, Nairobi |