Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

13 Assessment of effectiveness

In October 2012, the Executive Director of UNEP, Achim Steiner, wrote in a letter 151 to our Chairman, Olav Orheim, that “ GRID-Arendal has emerged as one of the most effec- tive collaboration centres in the UNEP family , helping to position UNEP as a strong, science-based organisation, able to respond expeditiously to the needs of governments and international policy processes.” The letter was also a topic when the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence (‘Utenriks- og forsvarskomiteen’) of the Nor- wegian Parliament (Stortinget) invited GRID-Arendal for a public hearing on “Norge og FN: Felles framtid, felles løs- ninger” (“Norway and the UN: common future, common solutions”). In the parliamentarian committee’s official response (‘instilling’) to the Government, GRID-Arendal and UNEP are specifically mentioned in the context that it is important for Norway to develop the relationships between Norwegian-based organisations and UN institu- tions and organisations in order to make UN organisa- tions more effective. 152

Signs that GRID-Arendal is seen as an effective and ef- ficient partner of UNEP are the increasing requests and contracts from UNEP for “Rapid Response Assess- ments” (RRAs) on urgent global issues. On very short notice and within tight time frames, GRID-Arendal has produced in 2012-13 the following RRAs: Green Carbon, Black Trade: Illegal Logging, Tax Fraud and Laundering in the World’s Tropical Forests; Stolen Apes: The Illicit Trade in Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos and Orangutans; Ele- phants in the Dust: The African Elephant Poaching Crisis; and Food Lost, Food Waste: Food Security by Restoring Eco- systems and Reducing Food Loss . A total of 26 publications 153 were produced during the bi- ennium in collaboration with UNEP and other partners. Some of our publications had an immediate impact on political decisions in the frame of international conven- tions, such as the Minamata (Mercury) Convention or CITES.

151. See letter in Annex 1 152. http://www.stortinget.no/Saker-og-publikasjoner/Saker/ Sak/?p=54599

153. See chapter 10 for full list of publications produced during biennium 2012-2013

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