A useful way to start addressing the challenge of environmental mainstreaming or to add emphasis and impetus to existing efforts can be to establish a small ‘learning and leadership group’ (of national environmental ‘champions’, key leaders and decision-makers from different stakeholders). Such a group can work informally to, for example, examine what environmental mainstreaming means in the country context, identify examples of approaches used to date in the country, consider drivers, opportunities and problems, and make recommendations. This approach has recently been used by IIED with some success in Botswana, Malawi, Nepal, Philippines, Tanzania, Zambia and Vietnam (see below).
City Learning and Leadership Groups
IED has teamed up with UNEP, with support from Cities Alliance, to work together to develop an approach that will strengthen the incorporation of environmental issues and concerns better and more effectively in city planning and development processes. As an input to this work, IIED and UNEP are organising three city learning and leadership group processes. The first, as a pilot, was organised in Manila, the Philippines, on 15-15 February 2012. The second was held in Accra, Ghana, on 24-25 July 2012. A third will take place in Accra, Ghana, on 25-26 September 2012.
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