The pandemic of 2020 has brought on an unprecedented health and economic crisis. This crisis is also an environmental crisis. Its roots are in how we exploit and abuse the natural world and it demonstrates how intricately human health is linked with ecosystem health. At the same time, anthropogenic climate change is rapidly and irreversibly pushing us towards rising temperatures and sea levels, contributing to massive loss of biodiversity as well as steep escalation of poverty and inequality. The 2030 Agenda recognizes the need for sustainable development that moves away from an excessive focus on the economic dimension to a balanced focus that includes equally social and environmental dimensions. A UN-wide effort is already underway to analyze social and environmental consequences of all development interventions. It is time evaluations reflect this critical need.
The UNEG Working Group on Integrating Environmental and Social Impact into Evaluations was formed during the 2019 UNEG Annual General Meeting in Nairobi to work on strengthening the sustainability of the UN development system's interventions through evaluations.
This EPE session follows on the study conducted by this Working Group which found that gaps remain in UN practice in mainstreaming especially the environment, but also social aspects into evaluations. The session will further highlight these gaps through cases and evidence and invites participants to a discussion on the way forward to integrating environmental and social impacts into evaluation practices in the UN.
Presenters:
- Juha Uitto (GEF): Stocktaking on policies and guidance in support of evaluation of social and environmental considerations
- Johannes Dobinger (UNIDO): Coverage of environmental aspects in evaluations of economic development interventions – a sample from UNIDO
- Michael Spilsbury (UNEP): Review of UNEP's contributions to poverty reduction across environment-focused evaluands
- S. Nanthikesan (IFAD): A systematic framework for mainstreaming environmental and social impact in all development evaluations
Moderator: Shravanti Reddy (UN Women)
The session will start at 9:00 AM EST/ 15:00 CET.
Connect to the session: https://unicef.zoom.us/j/94954480831