Environmental degradation is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and decreased productivity. Urban and indoor air pollution; inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene; natural disasters (mainly floods and landslides); and land degradation are the environmental problems associated with the highest social and economic costs, falling most heavily on vulnerable people, especially poor children under five years old. This book begins by exploring institutional change and environmental priorities in Colombia over the past 50 years, a time of substantial progress in environmental protection and rapid transition from a largely rural to a highly urbanised economy. Part 2 assesses the burden of disease rooted in inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene; poor air quality; and natural disasters; and the environmental management practices to reduce that burden. A discussion of the environmental costs of rapid and unplanned urbanisation is also included. Part 3 assesses the sustainable management of Colombia's rich endowment of natural resources.

'A valuable contribution to our collective knowledge about governance, poverty and the environment' Frances Seymour, World Resources Institute 'Detailed and realistic documentation of contemporary development and governance relationships and trends' Melissa Leach, Institute of Development Studies There are growing signs that development work by governments, aid agencies and non-government organisations ignores the fact that environmental quality matters to the poor. There are also indications that some environmental work is pushing 'people-out' protection methodologies. Yet recently, an extensive range of project, programme and policy level activities has focused attention on the important links between poverty and the environment, and the benefit of entrenching these links in policy-making processes at all levels. The role that politics plays in all of this is of overriding importance. This volume is the first to address the role of politics in environmental issues that matter to the poor through a series of case studies. It describes experiences at regional, national and local levels in low and middle income countries including China, Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Pakistan, Colombia, Peru, India, Saint Lucia and countries in East Africa. Ultimately the book demonstrates how understanding the national and local political context is crucial for addressing poverty-environment issues such as environmental health, access to natural resources for livelihoods and security, and coping with environmental disasters. The editors advocate ways in which political processes can be used to make positive changes - from the perspectives of both poverty reduction and the environment.

The evaluation builds from the widely recognized assertion that poverty often exacerbates environmental degradation and environmental damage reinforces poverty. UNDP's success at integrating these two aspects of its core mandate is very important for its credibility and the quality of support delivery to country partners. Evaluation findings suggest that while UNDP is highly aware of the importance for sustainable development of the poverty-environment nexus; the articulation of this awareness throughout the organization is uneven.Some country programmes continue to address poverty reduction and environmental sustainability separately. There are institutional disincentives to integration, including UNDP's organization into practice areas and its dependence on external funding. These internal challenges notwithstanding, UNDP is ideally situated to strengthen partnerships within UN system to coordinate action on poverty alleviation and environmental protection. The report recommends that the Poverty-Environment Initiative represents good practice and should be scaled up to provide a model of how UNDP, in partnership with other UN agencies, can integrate poverty and environmental priorities at the country level -- Publisher's website.

At the start of the 21st century, fighting poverty and protecting the environment are two of the most urgent challenges facing the international community. Environmental changes will jeopardize people's survival to an even greater extent in the future, and will hit the poor hardest. To meet these challenges, it will be essential to breathe new life into the partnership between industrialized and developing countries. It will be equally essential to combine poverty reduction with environmental protection in an integrated policy structure spanning all levels from local to global. In this report, the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) shows that global environmental policy is a prerequisite for global poverty reduction. WBGU analyses the relevant policy processes and delivers recommendations charting the way forward. 'With its interdisciplinary approach, providing a complex and systematic analysis of the poverty-environment nexus, WBGU's latest report breaks new ground. Indira Gandhi's old, convenient maxim was 'Poverty is the biggest polluter'. Put forward at the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, it has been sorely misused ever since to override environmental precaution and prioritize economic development strategies instead. The new WBGU report maps out a way to shape a coherent environment and development policy. This report revitalizes the Rio spirit and gives it a robust scientific base'. Prof Dr Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Member of the German Bundestag (MdB)

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In 2009, more than 40,000 people died prematurely in Sindh, Pakistan because of an illness associated with an environmental health risk. This means that almost one of every five deaths that occurred that year was caused by environmental factors. Loss of natural resources and impacts from natural disasters also represent development challenges. Increased salinity and waterlogging result in loss of agricultural crops. In addition, hydro-meteorological hazards recurrently affect Sindh, as illustrated by the devastating effects of the 2010 and 2011 floods. For Sindh's population, these problems mean pain and suffering, and reduced opportunities for economic advancement. The costs of all these phenomena are equivalent to 10% of Sindh's Gross Domestic Product. Climate change may exacerbate these challenges. Sindh's environmental and climate change problems call for urgent responses. A number of feasible interventions could be carried out to address the categories of environmental degradation that have the highest impacts on Sindh's population. Many of those interventions have positive benefit-cost ratios, meaning that every rupee invested in them would result in health and social benefits worth more than one rupee. Addressing these challenges also calls for targeted institutional strengthening and policy improvements, particularly after the 18th Constitutional Amendment devolved environmental management responsibilities to provincial governments. The underlying goal of this book is to facilitate and stimulate sharing of information on these phenomena, and to provide an interdisciplinary framework for bringing about improved environmental conditions in Sindh. It includes a methodology that enables the identification of environmental and climate change priority problems; the analysis of interventions to address such problems; the establishment of a social learning mechanism to continuously improve Sindh's responses and build resilience in the face of climate variability and change; and opportunities for the potential involvement of different stakeholder groups to decisively tackle climate change and deteriorating environmental conditions.

Natural resources such as forests and fisheries play a larger role in the national income and wealth of less developed economies. This handbook is designed to serve as a guide for champions and practitioners engaged in the task of mainstreaming poverty-environment linkages into national development planning. The handbook draws on a substantial body of experience at the country level and the many lessons learned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in working with governments — especially ministries of planning, finance and environment — to support efforts to integrate the complex interrelationships between poverty reduction and improved environmental management into national planning and decision-making