Nairobi, 20 December 2016 - UN Environment Deputy Executive Director, Ibrahim Thiaw and the Secretary-General of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, Patrick I. Gomes signed today, in the margins of the joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that aims to reinforce the collaboration between the Secretariat of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Secretariat) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) in the field of environment and climate change.
The MOU with the ACP Secretariat has been updated to align with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as other key international agreements such as the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the SAMOA Pathway. In addition, it recognizes UN Environment's strengthened regional mandate, as agreed in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012.
"This is a very important moment for UN Environment and for our relationship with the ACP countries and its Secretariat," Mr. Thiaw said at the signing. "Our collaboration under the terms of this new Memorandum of Understanding will help consolidate and further develop our cooperation on environment and climate change in the context of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development."
The Secretary General of the ACP States said "The ACP Secretariat is happy to strengthen its collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme and we look forward to implementing concrete activities over the next few years to the benefit of the ACP Member States."
The MoU supports a coherent, comprehensive and integrated approach towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and will focus on a number of areas, including, inter alia policy, capacity-building, knowledge sharing, the green economy, climate change and the sustainable management of natural resources.
The ACP Secretariat and UN Environment have been working together many years on a wide range of programmes, projects and activities, and this MOU will enhance this long-term relationship while at the same time focus on the priorities of ACP Member States and in particular Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries and landlocked countries in Africa.
For more information:
- ACP Secretariat: http://www.acp.int/fr
- UN Environment: http://www.unep.org
- UN Environment on the UN Brussels website http://www.unbrussels.org/agencies/unep.html
