Guidance Note: Mainstreaming Poverty-Environment Linkages into National Development Planning

Experience continues to show that better environmental management can contribute greatly to improving health, resilience to environmental risks, economic development and livelihood opportunities, especially for the poor. To fight poverty and preserve the ecosystems poor people rely on, we must place pro-poor economic growth and environmental sustainability at the heart of our most fundamental policies, systems and institutions. This approach has come to be known as poverty-environment mainstreaming. It essentially aims to integrate the linkages between the environment and poverty reduction into government processes and institutions, thereby changing the very nature of its decision-making culture and practices.