2018 Annual Report

Joint Swedish Environmental Protection Agency - UNDP Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)

By Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)

“In recent years, the relationship between human rights and environmental protection has become clearer. A healthy environment is necessary for the enjoyment of a vast range of human rights. In turn, the exercise of human rights, including rights of access to information, participation, and remedy, is critical for the protection of the environment. The UNDP and Swedish EPA efforts to strengthen good governance in the mining sector are of vital importance for the protection of the environment and human rights.”

John Knox, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment (2015-2018)

2018 in review:

In 2018, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and UNDP, through the joint global Environmental Governance Programme (EGP) for Sustainable Natural Resource Management, continued to support governments to meet their national commitments under global environmental agreements and international human rights law, and to accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Aiming to have a lasting effect on how countries govern the mining sector for more sustainable development outcomes, the EGP continued to advance activities at the national, regional and global level across all outcome areas. This included targeted support to Colombia, Kenya, Mongolia and Mozambique, as well as the production and sharing of new guides, training courses, and webinars.

Read our full annual report here.

Key results in the programme countries:

In 2018 the EGP continued to successfully advance capacity development initiatives targeting key mining and environmental officials and decision makers, national human rights institutions, civil society and local communities to minimize and prevent negative environmental and social impacts of mining, and to ensure that affected communities have a voice in mining governance, locally and nationally.

new guides, tools for capacity development:

In 2018 the EGP continued to develop and test tools and methodologies that can help countries integrate the rule of law, human rights and gender equality into the governance of the mining sector.

The EGP continued to work with partners across the United Nations system and stakeholders from the mining sector to ensure coherent and integrated policymaking and implementation, including by ensuring that people affected by environmental degradation—and, by extension, nature—have a voice in decision making.

To this effect, the EGP arranged and contributed to several key events with the purpose of shaping the global debate on human rights and the environment and the importance of integrated approaches to achieving the SDGs.