UNDP and UNEP

A cyclone hits the Konkan coast, a river is polluted by a factory, and a village needs a road, a school and a clean stove. Two questions follow. Who helps poorer countries plan development that is also sustainable, and who sets the world's environmental agenda? Within the UN, the first job belongs mainly to UNDP and the second to UNEP, and both are closely tied to laws that Indian students already know.

In two minutes

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme, created 1965) is the UN's main development network and publisher of the Human Development Report, while UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme, created after the 1972 Stockholm Conference) is the UN's environmental authority; both are subsidiary programmes of the General Assembly, not specialised agencies.

The rest of this chapter

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