Lead Partner: United Nations Volunteers (UNV) - United Nations Volunteers (UNV)
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: Volunteerism can play an important role in the development of cities and towns. It adds to the overall economic output. It is also closely related to the formation of social cohesion and capital. In addition, volunteering has important contributions in regard to the social aspects of urban development - e.g. as a basis for participatory processes.
However, contributions by volunteers are still largely overlooked and under-utilized. They are seldom fully recognized, promoted and supported by local authorities and by other urban decision-makers. For example, there are only very few cases of local authorities in developing countries that strongly and widely bring volunteerism on board of their policies and that explore fully its potential. Equally, the local volunteer sector is seldom organized in a fashion that would make the best of itself.
The initiative recognizes the aforementioned facts, and aims at helping to expand the contribution of volunteerism to urban development.
Its objectives are the following:
* To raise the awareness of urban policy- and decision-makers and other local stakeholders about the untapped potential of volunteerism in urban development and to motivate them to concretely explore ways to realise such potential.
* To support interested cities to concretely explore ways to increase the contribution of volunteerism to urban development.
* To support the establishment of links between different cities to exchange experiences and mutual support to further explore the contribution of volunteerism to urban development [more]
Lead Partner: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: The Mountain Partnership is a voluntary alliance of partners dedicated to improving the well-being, livelihoods and opportunities of mountain people and the protection and stewardship of mountain environments around the world. The Mountain Partnership taps the wealth and diversity of resources, knowledge, skills and expertise of its members to support positive change in mountain areas. The Partnership was launched as a type-2 outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002: the basic concept and guiding principles of the Mountain Partnership resulted from a consultative process that took place during the preparatory sessions of the WSSD with its core document (known as the Bali Document) finalized at the Fourth Session of the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Bali, Indonesia, 27 May - 7June 2002). Commitment to the Mountain Partnership has increased rapidly at the country, regional and international levels and concrete action is now underway to improve the lives of mountain people and protect mountain environments around the world. By March 2009, 50 countries, 16 intergovernmental organizations and 96 major group organizations (e.g. civil society, NGOs, private sector) had already joined the Mountain Partnership. A Mountain Partnership Secretariat, with financial support from the governments of Italy and Switzerland, is hosted at the central level by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Decentralized hubs of the secretariat have also been established in Latin America (hosted by CONDESAN), Asia Pacific (hosted by ICIMOD) and North America (hosted by the Banff Centre) and an Environmental Reference Centre is hosted by UNEP to provide guidance and support on environmental issues related to the Mountain Partnership.
The Mountain Partnership facilitates the effective and efficient implementation of Chapter 13, Agenda 21 and promotes, inter alia, joint initiatives based on paragraph 42 of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and other related instruments regarding mountains, by enhancing on-the-ground action and by working at the policy, programme and project levels. Specific partnership initiatives have been identified by members and are focussing on priority areas of action, such as biodiversity, education, gender, policy and law, research, sustainable livelihoods, sustainable agriculture and rural development in mountains (SARD-M) and watershed management. Additionally, geographically-focussed Initiatives have been launched and are operational in the Andes, Central Asia, Europe, the Hindu Kush Himalaya and other regions. New initiatives are developed as new priority areas are identified by members. Linkages between partnership initiatives are being encouraged at the local, national, regional and global levels, with members entering into specific initiatives according to their priorities, needs and capacities.
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Lead Partner: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Division of Policy Development and Law (DPDL)
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: The partners will work to:
- Help developing countries to develop action plans to complete the elimination of leaded gasoline by end 2008
- Start to phase down sulfur in diesel and gasoline fuels, long-term objective to be 50 ppm and below
-Concurrent with the aboveadopting cleaner vehicle requirements;
- Support the development and adoption of cleaner fuel standards and clean vehicle requirements by providing a platform for exchange of experiences and successful practices in developed and developing countries as well as technical assistance;
- Develop public outreach materials, educational programs, and awareness campaigns; adapt economic and planning tools for clean fuels and vehicles analyses in local settings; and support the development of enforcement and compliance programs, with an initial focus on fuel adulteration;
- Foster key partnerships between government and industry, NGOs, and other interested parties within a country and between countries to facilitate the implementation of cleaner fuel and vehicle commitments. [more]
Lead Partner: Government of Italy - Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGCS) - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: Goal: improve living standards among islands¿ residents while sustaining conservation of unique biodiversity.
Main challenge: foster the role of residents in setting planning agendas and participating fully in their islands' development.
Objective 1: provide opportunities for horizontal know-how transfer among relevant professional staff from both archipelagos, and to promote the involvement of the islands' residents in planning processes together with their participation in the sustainable development of the islands.
Low levels of awareness on the relationships linking the conservation of ecosystems, natural resources and biological diversity and the generation of concrete and sustainable development opportunities, is an issue to be addressed, at different levels, in both archipelagos. This extends to officials, community leaders as well as the local business community. There is an urgent need to strengthen the capacities of relevant institutions and society to work in a systemic and cross-sectoral fashion to improve the overall management of the island's resources.
Objective 2: contribute to the consolidation of relevant institutional capacities in the systemic planning and management of sustainable development, by promoting inter-linkage and information exchange between relevant institutions and administrations, as well as boosting their capacity to dialogue with local communities, NGOs and the general public. [more]
Lead Partner: REEEP International Secretariat
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: Accelerate a global market for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Systems (REES).
Tremendous financial resources from the private and public sector will be needed to meet developing and transition countries' future energy demand in a sustainable way. Obstacles prohibiting this development include a lack of reliable policies and regulatory measures, and the perceived high risk and low return investments in REES.
The removal of the obstacles to sustainable energy is urgently needed:
- Robust policies and favourable, transparent and stable regulatory frameworks are required to attract private investors and to guarantee affordable energy services to the consumers.
- New forms of financing, risk mitigation and guarantee models will be necessary to make small sized renewables and energy efficiency projects bankable and economically attractive.
REEEP aims to work as an enabler, multiplier and catalyser of institutional change, and to have a real impact over the next decade with the following objectives:
1. Significant global increase of investments in renewable energy
2. Significant global increase of energy efficiency measures
3. Significant increase in access to sustainable energy services for the poor
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to collapse the Summary of Partnerships.