Lead Partner: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Geographical Scope: Sub-regional Danube - Black Sea Basin Summary: The Global Environment Facility Strategic Partnership on the Black Sea and Danube Basin is an initiative aimed to address the root causes of environmental degradation in this region and promote investments and capacity building to return the Black Sea/Danube Basin environment to its 1960s condition. The GEF funded Partnership has been established with the cooperation of the World Bank, UNDP, UNEP and other multilateral and bilateral financiers and basin countries.
The elements of the Partnership are two UNDP Regional Projects and the WB Investment Fund:
* The Danube Regional Project (DRB): Strengthening the Implementation Capacities for Nutrient Reduction and Transboundary Cooperation in the Danube River Basin
* The Black Sea Ecosystems Recovery Project (BSERP): Control of eutrophication, hazardous substances and related measures for rehabilitating the Black Sea ecosystem
* World Bank Investment Fund for Nutrient Reduction in the Black Sea/Danube Basin
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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: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: This is a civil society led, government supported, FAO facilitated undertaking.The preliminary focus of the SARD Initiative has currently been focusing on three themes, which were discussed in the International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountain Regions (Adelboden, Switzerland, 6/2002), in the SARD Electronic Forum (6/2002-present) and in a number of local consultations in different regions of the developing world and among some of the NGOs/CSOs attending the World Food Summit: five years later (6/2002). Sub-Initiatives can be organized around the following or other thematic areas of action, based on the interests, priorities, commitment and resources of specific partners involved:
* Access to resources
* Fair conditions of employment
* Good Agricultural Practices for SARD
Given the critical mass of Mountain Governments supporting the SARD Initiative in the Adelboden Declaration, the relevant sub-Initiatives outlined in the Adelboden Plan of Action, and that 2002 is the International Year of the Mountains, it has been proposed that the Initiative should begin with a mountain focus, subject to the interest and resources of concerned stakeholders. The Initiative may capitalize on other key conferences and International Years, for instance, 2003 is the International Year of Fresh Water. [more]
to collapse the Summary of Partnerships.