The OECD has undertaken a peer-learning exercise on environment mainstreaming to support OECD members who face challenges in this critical dimension of development co-operation. The key areas for learning were: how and why environment issues (including biodiversity, climate adaptation and mitigation, and pollution) are integrated across programmes; what has worked and why; what challenges remain and are emerging; and how these challenges can best be addressed.
This peer-learning exercise involved consultation with Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members, three country visits by peers, and independent facilitation by the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED). It began with a survey of mainstreaming progress and challenges among members of the DAC Network on Environment and Development Co-operation (ENVIRONET) in February 2018. This informed an inception workshop that was conducted in May 2018 to allow ENVIRONET members to share their experiences, and resulted in an analytical framework prepared by facilitators from IIED. That framework guides peer-learning visits.
The first peer-learning visit was of the European Union (EU) institutions (the European Commission and the European Investment Bank) in Brussels, from 24-28 September 2018. The peers involved in the visit were from Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. A DAC learning workshop in October 2018 reviewed the findings of the EU visit and drew out generic lessons with DAC members. This annex shares the lessons that emerged from that visit. Peer visits also occurred in Sweden in January 2019 and Canada in April 2019 (summarised in Annexes B and C respectively).
The peer-learning exercise of the EU was highly successful, energising the peers and revealing lessons that could be of wider value to OECD members as well as the EC and EIB. It is expected that the final results may inform future formal OECD peer reviews, which are carried out regularly of OECD members, and provide a basis for sharing among ENVIRONET members interested in enhancing their mainstreaming of environment and climate change.