25 July 2011: The UN Development Group (UNDG) Task Team on Environmental Sustainability, Climate Change and Rio+20, in collaboration with several partners, organized a workshop for the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region to build the capacity of UN Country Teams to address the linkages among environmental sustainability, climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR) in country programming to support national development processes, and to mainstream them into UN Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF).

The content of the workshop, which was held from 11-15 July 2011 in Panama, was based on three interrelated UNDG guidance notes: Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction into the Common Country Assessment (CCA) and UNDAF; Mainstreaming Environmental Sustainability in Country Analysis and the UNDAF; and Integrating Climate Change Considerations in the Country Analysis and the UNDAF. During the workshop, participants discussed entry points and opportunities for mainstreaming in their UNDAF Road Maps.

The workshop also included hands-on “Country Clinics,” where participants presented opportunities and challenges in their UNDAF development processes and received feedback and advice from other participants. In addition to the Country Clinics, presentations were made on the tools contained in the UNDG Guidance Notes and brief introductions were given to the normative frameworks and international context for environmental sustainability, climate change and DRR.

This was the second of three regional workshops to be delivered in 2011. The workshops focus on members of UN Country Teams who are embarking on the UNDAF roll-out process in 2011 and 2012, with the aim of enabling them to identify opportunities and tools for mainstreaming environmental sustainability, climate change and DRR in these processes. The three regional workshops are organized by the UNDG Task Team in cooperation with the Capacity for Disaster Reduction Initiative (CADRI), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the UN System Staff College (UNSSC). [UN CC:Learn Press Release] [Climate Change Policy & Practice Story on the Africa and Arab Region Workshop]