Strengthening environmental governance by focusing on building and supporting institutional and individual capacities of stakeholders
Latest Update
Regional preparatory and briefing sessions for CBD OWG 3 meeting
OACPS Ministerial Resolution on Biodiversity
Who we are
The ACP MEAs programme is a joint partnership between the European Union, the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The programme aims to build capacity in 79 countries in Africa, Caribbean, and the Pacific (ACP) regions to support them in fulfilling their obligations as parties to Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), to address the environmental challenges they face and to reap the benefits of improved environmental governance at regional and national levels.
What we do
Since its inception in 2009, the programme is continuing support to ACP countries and is now in its third phase. Phase 1 aimed to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, loss of biodiversity, drought, land degradation, chemicals, hazardous waste and other threats to the environment. Phase 2 was built on the experiences, lessons learned, and achievements gained from the initial phase, to further enhance the capacity of the ACP countries on two clusters of MEAs (Biodiversity and chemicals and waste management). In the current and third phase (ACP MEAs 3) that is implemented during the period 2020-2024, the programme focuses on the following:
MEAs Support
Improving enforcement of and compliance with Multilateral Environmental Agreements belonging to the biodiversity cluster and the chemicals, waste cluster;
OCEAN GOVERNANCE
Improving ocean governance in ACP countries capacities for the managing and safeguarding ocean resources and strengthening the regional seas conventions in the regions
AGRICULTURE
Enhancing mainstreaming of biodiversity and of the sound management of chemicals and waste in agriculture in ACP countries.
Special Initiatives
The ACP MEAs supports a number of special initiatives to further
strengthen the overall focus of the programme. These include
Where We Work
Africa
Covering 49 countries in Africa, the ACP MEAs 3 programme works in the region through the African Union Commission (AUC) with its headquarters in Addis Ababa. In addition, the programme partners with two Regional Seas conventions – Abidjan Convention and Nairobi Convention.
Caribbean
Delivering through the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, the programme supports 16 countries from the Caribbean region, including several Small island Developing States (SIDS). The CARICOM Secretariat in turn partners with several national and regional entities and governments in the region for effective delivery of the programme. The programme also partners with the Cartagena Convention.
Pacific
Covering 15 countries in the Pacific region, the programme is implemented through the Secretariat of Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the UNEP sub-regional office for the Pacific region. Through SPREP, the programme has an outreach to several stakeholder groups in the region besides working closely with a number of regional programmes. The Secretariat of the Noumea Convention also serves as a partner to the programme.
Other Regions
Given the nature of activities undertaken through the ACP MEAs 3 Programme, reach out to other countries and stakeholder groups outside the ACP region also is envisaged. Activities such as negotiation training, sharing of expertise and experiences from the ACP region, supporting cross-regional exchange of ideas form core of such activities.
