Understanding the link between the environment and poverty is crucial, ongoing work at the global level. The environment, encompassing all natural resources, underpins most economic activity and is a source of individual and social wellbeing.
Since 2006, the joint UNDP-UNEP Poverty Environment Initiative (PEI) has been supporting governments to identify country-specific issues related to poverty and the environment. This work has strengthened development planning and policy-making processes, helping to reduce poverty and manage the environment in an integrated way.
IDEEA Group has been part of this ongoing initiative. In 2016, we supported the PEI to develop the Poverty-Environment Accounting Framework (PEAF). The PEAF applies the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) for integrated planning, budgeting and monitoring for poverty related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
In 2020, we helped develop the Poverty Environment Expenditure Framework (PEEF): a tool to further assist the application of natural capital accounting to capture the state of the environment (particularly, changes in ecosystem services) and how those changes impact poverty. By doing so, the PEAF aims to improve the system of national accounts and allow for public expenditure reviews (in the future) to better analyse the efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditure contributing to environmental sustainability and poverty reduction in a balanced manner.
With PEI support, countries have made notable progress in integrating pro-poor environmental priorities into the national, sectoral and sub-national development planning and budgeting processes.