Four U.N. agencies have joined forces to assist 30 countries in advancing their transition to a green economy. The plan: Provide a “comprehensive suite of green economy services” in the next seven years.
The U.N. Environment Program, the International Labor Organization, the U.N. Institute for Training and Research and the U.N. Industrial Development Organization are all taking part in the Partnership for Action on Green Economy or PAGE, launched Tuesday (Feb. 19) at the ongoing UNEP Governing Council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. Some of the services they plan to offer include:
Technical assistance to national partners to help strengthen their capacity in mobilizing money and implementing green initiatives.
Data collection on the impact of green economy investments.
Advice on “inter-ministerial and multistakeholder coordination mechanisms to build consensus, country ownership and overcome implementation challenges.”
Training packages and e-learning courses on the “green economy” to stakeholders.
a newly established PAGE Academy and Leadership Program.
A web portal that contains the “most up-to-date resources.”
A set of “global and sectoral indicators for national green economy assessments.”
Knowledge-sharing events and policy dialogues.
The partnership is in response to governments’ call for U.N. agencies to support their transition to an “inclusive green economy” at last year’s Rio+20. An estimated 1.5 billion people could be affected by the transition, according to ILO. But PAGE “aims to embed the right policies and opportunities at the national level as countries move forward with their inclusive green economy plans, and thus ensure this transition creates more and better jobs and benefits all of society,” ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said.
The partners have yet to announce the 30 countries under the initiative. UNEP said a number of U.N. agencies will also take part in the initiative “in due course” in its 2012 annual report, where a list of the program’s top 15 donors was also mentioned.
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