The United Nations says it spent USD53.9 million last year to create 5,280 “green” jobs worldwide. But according to documentation obtained by Fox News, the U.N. agency spent some USD1.68 billion to help generate these employment opportunities through 135 environmental projects.
“The wildly differing size of those price tags for a fairly trivial amount of employment emerged as part of a muted rebranding effort at UNDP. Top management is trying to burnish some of its credentials in the face of internal critics who feel that when it comes to merging environmental management and economic development to solve poverty problems, UNDP is not very good at its job,” according to George Russell, executive editor of Fox News.
Monitoring and evaluation is “almost entirely missing” in UNDP’s environmental projects, according to the 112-page document obtained by Fox News. UNDP’s environmental agenda is steered by funding opportunities from outside sources, the report adds.
Some UNDP staff are “genuinely not convinced that the poverty-environment nexus is necessary or workable,” and “hard data on the benefits of the approach are not available,” according to the document.
The report adds: “[I]f integrating environmental management and poverty reduction is to become a widespread reality, evidence must be available demonstrating that it produces benefits in a timely and efficient manner.” But currently, “there is little incentive to include, monitor and evaluate the role and benefits of including poverty-environment linkages in projects.”
The study is due to be presented to UNDP’s 36-nation executive board, which kicks off its meeting on Jan. 31.
