Articulating social and environmental policy for sustainable development: Practical options in Latin America and the Caribbean
Elaborated in the framework of the UNDP-UN Environment “Poverty Environment Initiative” (PEI), this publication identifies entry points to integrate environmental sustainability and social protection goals. It aims to contribute to the improvement of policy tools by providing practical examples of an integrated approach to the implementation of Agenda 2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on the poverty-environment nexus. The potential policy tools that could serve this purpose include conditional cash transfers systems; multidimensional poverty measurement; payments for ecosystem services; and food security and nutrition programmes. The paper presents four specific examples from the region: the “Bolsa Verde” Programme in Brazil, Hands for Water Alliance in Colombia, Dominican Republic´s Single Beneficiary System, and the Strategic Project for Food Security in Mexico. The analysis shows that advancing towards sustainable development will depend on the efforts governments make to integrate eradicating poverty and reducing inequality with environmental management objectives in development planning and policies. The paper highlights concrete examples of existing tools and models in Latin America and the Caribbean that generate combined positive impacts on poverty reduction, social protection and environmental sustainability.