GEO-6 Regional Asssement for West Asia
Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reporting process, underpinned by UNEP Live and the national toolkit, knows as the Indicator and Reporting Information System (IRIS).
• The Plenary reaffirmed the importance of building on existing assessments and processes, as well as using official national, sub-regional and regional data, statistics, indicators and information as major inputs to the GEO-6 West Asia regional assessment.
• The Plenary discussed, elaborated and agreed on the following narrative for the GEO-6 West Asia regional assessment:
Peace and improved environmental governance are key factors in achieving prosperity and resilience in the West Asia region. Sustainable mechanisms need to be developed to create job opportunities, improve public participation and public health, and to enhance competitiveness and innovation. These need to be supported by strengthening the capacity of, and cooperation among, public institutions and civil society to better manage natural resources.
The Plenary agreed on the following 12 regional priorities for the GEO-6 West Asia regional assessment report:
• Peace, security, and the environment; • Fresh water resources; •
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Sustainable use of natural resources for human well- being and resource efficiency;
Urbanization, land-use planning and their effects on ecosystems;
• Integrated waste management; • Environment and its impact on public health and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR);
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Biodiversity resources, conservation and management – terrestrial, coastal and marine life;
• Marine and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM);
• Improving environmental governance and regional, international cooperation;
• Energy mix and diversification and access; • Climate change adaptation and mitigation; •
Desertification. 14
Given the overlap of regional priorities identified at the Amman Meeting (REIN May 10-14, 2015), a grouping of these priorities was called for by the co-chairs and the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) in order to strengthen regional priority discussions. After many rounds of discussions during the Feb 24-25, 2016 meeting held in Manama, the co-chairs along with SAP committee members and Special Lead Editors, agreed to group the regional priorities into seven priorities that relate to West Asia. The seven regional priorities are: water resources, land resources, coastal and marine resources, biodiversity, air, climate change and and integrated waste management along with two governing themes, namely the water-energy-food nexus, and peace, security and environment. The themes present an overall umbrella of discussion in the security of the identified regional priorities. Regional priorities depend on each other and achieving the targets and goals of one priority should not compromise the integrity of targets and goals in other priorities. The holistic approach of addressing WA regional priorities, provides a platform of interaction and synergies that can be captured in terms of coordinated efforts and mutually non-exclusive outcomes. Moreover, the holistic examination of priorities provides the first steps to an integrated resource management approach which West Asia countries aspire to achieve.
This section therefore demonstrates the direct links to water, energy and food using the nexus framework, together with peace, security and the environment. This is followed by discussions on environmental governance and sustainability, environmental health, and public health and the environment.
1.2 The links between regional priorities
The essence of advocating for one priority over another is based on the presumption that one priority needs to be compromised for the benefit of another. This need not be the case. A closer examination of the interconnecting aspects of regional priorities, shows that the region may not be able to achieve sustainability in terms of peace, security and the environment without achieving sustainability in the water, energy and food nexus (Khagram et al. 2013) (Figure 1.2.1).
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