The African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) is the primary ministerial level forum for environment and development issues in Africa. It has helped launch various environmental initiatives at the regional level, and these have greatly influenced environmental policy in Africa. This institutional history report looks at AMCEN in the broader context of decision making for environment and development in Africa over the period 2006–2008.
The report focuses on how Africa’s intergovernmental bodies and Africa’s development partners are supporting sustainable development in Africa. It provides a historical overview of AMCEN, including its many milestone decisions and programmmes, as well as an overview of NEPAD. It also provides an overview of key meetings, decisions and declarations on environment and development as they relate to the key AMCEN priorities of:
- Africa’s development needs;
- biodiversity and wildlife management;
- climate change;
- chemicals management;
- desertification, food security and land.
The report ends with an overview of the International Institute for Sustainable Development's (IISD) African Regional Coverage Project which aims to give African meetings and activities a higher exposure to the international community, reversing the information flow and giving African policy-makers a voice in their own priority setting.
