UNEP welcomes "timely" Dutch funding

The Dutch government has almost doubled its contribution to the core funding of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for this year at a crucial time for the UN body, which has seen contributions fall off in recent years and is preparing for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, next September. The Netherlands decided to raise its contribution to UNEP's Environment Fund by around $2.1 million to a total of about US $4.5 million for 2001, in what UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfor on Wednesday called a "substantial and timely intervention" that renewed optimism within the organisation. "The decision by the Dutch to give us this much needed and much welcomed support has come at an important time as we head for next year's crucial World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa," Toepfor said in a UNEP press release. The Environment Fund, which has been declining in recent years, is UNEP's core funding and "critical for the organisation's activities in areas such as chemicals, early warning of disasters, wildlife and environmental law," the agency stated. The Dutch also indicated their intention to back specific projects through trust funds which, in the past two years, have provided funding for UNEP interventions on environmental law for Africa, economics and trade, the agency's Global Environment Outlook and the Global Programme of Action for reducing pollution of the seas from the land. UNEP's fund raising experts anticipate that the final figure for funding contributions from governments, which are made on a voluntary basis, will be up to $45 million. The agency's core work programme, most of which is funded from the Environment Fund, is estimated at about $50 million a year. Though it still faced a shortfall, the anticipated funding was "far higher than had been feared," UNEP stated on Wednesday. The increase in funding for UNEP comes in the wake of a Dutch review and assessment of UNEP. "We were pleased with what we found. It is our conclusion that UNEP has become a more efficient and effective organisation and that our money is being generally well spent," said Gertjan Storm, the Netherlands Ambassador to Kenya and Permanent Representative to UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya. "The increased contributions recognise the importance of the environment in the goal of delivering a healthier, less poverty ridden and more sustainably developed world," said Storm. "Indeed, we are keen for UNEP to deliver on the issue of poverty and its links with the environment," he added. There is a growing consensus that next year's Summit on Sustainable Development must deliver agreement on "definitive actions that can comprehensively address the economic, social and environmental issues confronting the global community," according to Nitin Desai, United Nations Secretary-General for the Johannesburg summit - http://www.johannesburgsummit.org "What we need," he said, "is to build a system, a set of rules, or an environment, that will enable globalization to become a more positive force for improving all people's lives." This new system, he cautioned, must involve reducing poverty and environmental stress while encouraging economic growth and prosperity, particularly in developing countries. This, in turn, would greater international cooperation, particularly in the areas of finance, technology transfer, debt relief and trade, and equity. "We already know - and have agreed on - what has to be done," Desai said. "What we need to know now is who is going to do what, and when."