PROGRAMME

GOVERNANCE
ENVIRONMENTAL
Integrating
Environment and
Human Rights into
the Governance of
the Mining Sector

Stories: environmentalgovernanceprogramme.org
Website: egp-undp.org
Email: egp@undp.org

A JOINT SWEDISH ENVIRONMENTAL

Swedish Environmental UNDP Bureau for Policy and PROTECTION AGENCY - UNITED NATIONS
Protection Agency Programme Support
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME INITIATIVE
Valhallavägen 195 304 East 45th Street
SE-106 48 Stockholm  New York, NY 10017 

WHO WE ARE
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Swedish
EPA) and the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) launched in 2014 the Environmental Governance
Programme (EGP) for Sustainable Natural Resource
Management, focusing on the mining sector.  regulatory frameworks relevant to the mining sector.
The programme draws upon the combined governance,
environmental and extractive sector expertise of the two
agencies and their partners.
Using the nexus between the environment and human
rights as a lens, the EGP takes an integrated approach to
sustainable natural resource management, that focuses on
addressing the drivers of conflict, environmental
degradation, inequality, exclusion, and poverty
simultaneously.
The EGP provides targeted support to four countries:
Colombia, Kenya, Mongolia, and Mozambique. The
programme also works at the global and regional level to
support the exchange of innovative policy approaches
within and across countries and regions.
WHAT WE DO
We work with ministries of mining, environment, and other
national and local stakeholders, to strengthen capacities for
integrating human rights and environmental protection into
the design, implementation, and monitoring of policies and
We support civil society and human rights institutions to
strengthen the right to information, participation,
accountability, and redress in public decision making.
We engage with the media to sensitize them to issues related
to mining and environmental harms.
 We also create platforms for dialogue with the mining
industry to strengthen understanding of and compliance with
environmental and human rights standards and obligations.
We aim to assist countries in advancing their efforts to meet
national commitments under global environmental
agreements, including Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, and
international human rights frameworks while accelerating
progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Kwale Workshop on Environmental Governance of the Mining Sector: Putting Policies into
Practice, May 2018. Photo: UNDP Kenya/Joyous Begisen
EXAMPLES OF OUR WORK
• Connecting countries to the expertise needed to tackle
complex challenges and leverage new opportunities in the
environmental governance of the mining sector.
• Facilitating global, regional, and country knowledge exchange
through:
- peer-to-peer learning events between the Swedish EPA and
national government partners;
- the GOXI.org on-line Community of Practice platform; and
- webinars and other South-South and triangular learning
opportunities.
• Conducting diagnostics that inform policy reforms and help to
integrate environment, gender, human rights, and rule-of-law
in mining governance.
• Strengthening inter-ministerial and cross-sectoral
coordination mechanisms that recognize the roles of different
authorities involved in governing the mining sector.
• Facilitating and strengthening in-country platforms for multi-
stakeholder dialogue and engagement.
• Synthesizing and sharing country experiences and global
expertise through technical studies and guidance notes on
cutting-edge issues of environmental governance of the mining
sector.
• Advancing the global dialogue on the nexus between human
rights, environmental sustainability, and conflict prevention.