Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

9 Capacity building and assessment

9.1 AFRICA

SIGNIFICANT OUTCOME: AEO-3 While it is early to assess the impact of the AEO-3 pro- cess, it is notable that the theme and analytical frame- work have been well received by countries in the region, which are keen to assess environment and health link- ages. For example, Zimbabwe’s third state of the envi- ronment report will incorporate the environment and health thread, and the team that will put together the report underwent training on Integrated Environmental Assessment and Reporting using the AEO-3 analytical framework. The training was requested by Zimbabwe, and facilitated by GRID-Arendal and UNEP.  Promotion of Zambia and Zambezi Atlases’ findings and tracking their immediate impact (only 2012) The ZambeziRiverBasin:Atlasof theChangingEnvironment , 78 a component of the 2010-2011 MFA Programme Coopera- tion Agreement, was completed in 2012. The atlas was requested by the Zambezi Watercourse Commission as baseline information to support their work and was com- piled by the Southern Africa Research and Documenta- tion Centre, with GRID-Arendal undertaking research on remote-sensing data, and providing editorial and produc- tion support. Outreach activities included a launch of the atlas on 29 May 2013 by Angola’s Minister of Water, who is the current chairperson of the Southern African Devel- opment Community (SADC) Ministers of Water. A second showcase of the Zambezi Basin Atlas took place during the World Tourism Organization General Assembly in Au- gust 2013. In addition, a promotional video was produced with guidance from GRID-Arendal. The content of the Zambia Atlas was developed by both GRID-Arendal and the Zambia Environmental Manage- ment Agency. The production followed training offered by GRID-Sioux Falls in the collection, processing and visu- alization of satellite data. The Zambia Atlas responds to growing concerns in Zambia about the impact of the fast recovering copper mining industry on the environment and urbanization. Print and USB flash drive versions of the atlas were published in late 2013, and the launch took place on 18 December 2013.

 Support to UNEP’s flagship products – GEO-5, AEO-3 and national environment summaries (only 2012) GRID-Arendal’s Africa Programme coordinated processes contributing to two of UNEP’s flagship reports – the fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5) and the third Africa Environment Outlook (AEO-3). GRID-Arendal provided one of the two Coordinating Lead Authors for GEO-5’s regional chapter on Africa 75 and subsequently assisted UNEP with the Africa launch of GEO-5 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, one of the 25 launches worldwide coinciding with the Rio+20 Earth Summit in June 2012. The report and its associated capacity building received significant mention in the Rio+20 Outcome Document. 76 For AEO-3, 77 GRID-Arendal compiled the guidelines for authors, provided the Coordinating Lead Authorship of the main report and Summary for Policy Makers (SPM), and supported outreach activities. The AEO-3 SPM was launched in September 2012 during the 14 th session of the Africa Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Arusha, Tanzania, as well as in 2013 during the First Universal Session of the Governing Council of UNEP. The full AEO-3 report, whose theme is environ- ment and health, was launched in October 2013 during the 5 th special session of AMCEN, held in Gaborone, Bot- swana. To widen the dissemination of key findings in both GEO-5 and AEO-3 reports a process was initiated to visually re- package some messages for online publishing. Much of this process was subsumed under the new UNEP-Live ini- tiative which contains country-relevant case studies and country environment profiles reported under the Africa Environment Information Network (see below). In addi- tion, GRID-Arendal and UNEP hosted a team of experts from Africa to discuss the GEO-5 messages and use of the report findings in policy setting.

75. http://www.unep.org/geo/pdfs/geo5/GEO5_report_C9.pdf 76. GA Document A/66/L.56 77. http://www.unep.org/pdf/aeo3.pdf

78. http:/ /www.grida.no/publications/zambezi/

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