Sustainable Consumption and Production/Cooperation for implementing SCP

Cooperation for implementing SCP

Trends of activities and policies

The Costa Rica meeting in 2005 recognised the linkages between SCP and poverty reduction, and rec-ommended mainstreaming SCP in poverty reduction policies and measures as one of the key areas of implementing SCP. This was envisioned to support the development, funding and implementation of SCP activities in developing countries, and to engage development agencies to apply the SCP concept for their poverty reduction projects. For this objective, the first Cooperation Dialogue Session with development agencies was held during the Costa Rica meeting with participation from seven agencies. As a follow-up, UNEP conducted a re-view of the current SCP-related projects in development agencies. The results revealed a majority of bilateral and multilateral agencies are already implementing SCP-related projects (see 1.4). This review provides a basis for considering how to better integrate SCP in development plans and identify opportu-nities to increase access to available development funds. The Cooperation with Africa Task Force also explores acceleration of the SCP implementation in developing countries by both working directly with those governments and extending cooperation with development agencies (see 1.3.2). The second Cooperation Dialogue Session will be organised at the Third International Expert Meeting on the 10YFP in Stockholm in June 2007.

One of key recommendations at the Costa Rica meeting was to integrate national SCP action plans into national development plans, including Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). As response, UNEP launched a pilot project “Integration of SCP into PRSPs”. The project works with governments of a few selected low-income countries to help them draft country-specific texts on SCP for PRSPs. The texts are expected to contain examples of concrete public policies and private sector actions for SCP that can also contribute to poverty reduction. CSCP has developed a guidance manual that helps pilot countries to identify the linkages between SCP and poverty reduction in key industrial sectors and to draft the texts step by step.

UNEP launched a pilot project for integrating the SCP concept into Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. As another measure, it was proposed to encourage National Cleaner Production Centres (NCPCs) and other intermediaries to take up the SCP concept and apply it for business development in their own countries. To support this process, UNEP’s 9th International High-level Seminar on SCP (SCP 9) held in Arusha, Tanzania in December 2006 will introduce the concept of “Human Development through the Market” (HDtM) as a new guiding vision for NCPCs. The HDtM concept aims to inspire businesses to find new market opportunities for offering products and services that both address the needs of the poor and improve environmental and social conditions in developing countries at the same time. This approach will be presented with case studies in various sectors that have been tried in different countries.

Examples of best practices

• Bolsa Amazônia is a regional partnership dedicated to developing small-scale enterprises in rural forest communities in Amazon through harvesting and processing value-added products and their commercialisation. Its objective is promoting sustainable use of Amazonian natural re-sources while reducing poverty of indigenous people through new income generation activities and providing consumers with environmentally friendly products. One success story is the coco-nut-fibre project that supplies 120,000 car seats a month to DaimlerChrysler and benefits 5,200 people in the various steps of production. As result of this project, producers have increased their productivity and reduced soil degradation. Bolsa Amazônia has been supported by EU funding for training on marketing, processing, management and sustainable resource use.
• Tunis International Center for Environmental Technologies (CITET) promotes environmentally sound technologies and strengthens the skills in this field by enhancing Tunisia’s compe-tences in environmental technologies and supporting the international exchange of experience and know-how. German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) supports CITET for providing expertise in training, laboratory services, and transfer and implementation of environmental technologies. As a result, CITET has trained over 8,000 participants in technical workshops in six years, and more than 5,600 people have visited the conferences, business meetings and exhibitions in the last 3 years. According to a survey of 14 companies consulted by CITET, they have saved an average of €850,000 annually due to introduction of environmental technolo-gies.

Challenges faced

• While the issues relating to SCP have been addressed in a variety of projects, the concept itself is not universally known or widely applied. This limits the possibility of many projects.
• Research, education and development of environmentally sound technologies have not ade-quately focused to adapt them to conditions in developing countries.
• Many SCP-related projects and best practices remain limited in terms of scale and funding, resulting in limited impacts towards “leapfrogging” of developing countries as a whole.
• Securing adequate funding for SCP activities remains a challenge, especially how to increase awareness of SCP among both private and public financial institutions.
• The limited involvement of the private sector in SCP and the slow uptake of the concept by en-trepreneurs have hindered the expansion of SCP benefits beyond pilot projects.
• The impact of integrating SCP into national development plans or PRSPs might be limited unless key actors within national authorities are familiar with the SCP concept and take up leadership for actively utilising the SCP concept in the actual policy planning and implementation.