How GEG reform could reduce poverty and support development

1. How GEG reform could reduce poverty and support development Six problems and six options Steve Bass, IIED – steve.bass@iied.org 16.10.2007

2. 6 poverty problems call for GEG reform • Poor people face disproportionate environmental deprivations and hazards, constraining their development • env assets = 2/3 rural poor income; loss to hazards LDCs 5x OECD • Yet environment is not integral to current development policy • MDG7 an add-on; ‘env-blind’ poverty alleviation raids nature • And development is not integral to GEG policy • ‘sus use’ OK; but dominant env culture neglects local rights/needs • Consequently, GEG regimes tend either to exert little real force • GEG totally marginalised by mainstream governance in LDCs… • Or local implementation of GEG entrenches local dev problems • ‘poverty-blind’ protected areas displace poor people • Poverty reduction & environmental initiatives are too separate • this raises costs & denies synergy;yet <1 billion in 25 BD hotspots

3. 6 GEG options to tackle poverty • Knowledge-based policy – routine Mill Eco Asst national/global • use in wealth accounts, poverty/household monitoring, aid reviews • Highlight and improve aid effectiveness – alongside GEG • env in PRS/governance work; engage DAC/PEP; track GEG/aid $$ • Get a ‘development’ theme going across GEG/SBSTAs • catalog rates of return to env investment; identify dev implications of tipping points; work with UN P/E Initiative in 25 countries; PCLG • Construct GEG from bottom-up: a ‘pyramid of participation’ • local ground-truthing/innovation; integrated country report (OECS) • Greatly scale up direct payments to poor people for GPGs • C/BD schemes/standards recognise their rights, capacities, needs • Generate systemic GEG vision informed by dev links • humanitarian charter, clear ecol principles, SD ‘global civil code’