The Poverty-Environment Partnership (PEP) is an informal network of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, UN organisations and international NGOs. The PEP seeks to integrate poverty reduction, environmental sustainability and climate resilience in global, national and local development agendas. With agreement to the SDGs , the PEP is launching a ‘getting to zero’ call to action—a unifying vision for the SDGs of reaching zero extreme poverty, zero net greenhouse gas emissions, and zero net loss of natural assets. This will be the cornerstone of PEP’s future strategy and commitment to putting the SDGs into action at the country level.

The PEP as a ‘network of networks’ plays a catalytic role, focusing on agenda-setting and improving development policy and practice through: (i) joint analytic work; (ii) networking; and (iii) facilitating shared (South-South and South-North) learning. PEP members collaborate through working groups on joint analysis of priority and ‘cutting-edge’ poverty, environment and climate issues with the aim of making global, national and local policy, planning and implementation more inclusive, equitable, integrated and sustainable. PEP analyses typically are presented as joint papers signed collectively by PEP member senior management and widely disseminated online and through PEP member networks. PEP annual meetings provide an informal and open forum for networking and shared learning, and PEP members support outreach activities and knowledge-sharing through their own circles. The PEP website is to be upgraded and re-launched in the coming months to become a more useful tool for networking and shared learning.

PEP as a network focused on joint analytic work, networking and facilitating shared learning plays a catalytic, rather than operational, role. Many PEP members, however, are directly engaged in capacity-building and technology transfer.

A PEP Coordinator is based at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, UK. Members meet annually, alternating between locations in the Global South and Global North. The PEP ‘Reference Group’ is a smaller group of members who meet virtually between the annual meetings to help guide and review progress of joint activities, as well as the PEP’s overall strategy and direction. The Asian Development Bank hosts the PEP website (see below).

Members of the PEP Reference Group, which oversees PEP planning and activities, are: Asian Development Bank Austrian Development Agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Development Alternatives Durban City Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme (ESPA) Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Government of Bhutan International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) The World Bank UK Department for International Development (DFID) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Resources Institute (WRI) WWF International