Kenya has scored a major win after countries directed Unep to return all its key departments to Nairobi.
Although Unep is headquartered in Nairobi, African nations complained the Kenya office was just a shell because key departments are based in Europe, where their high-level meetings are held.
On Thursday, ministers who attended the UN Environment Assembly said this must stop.
They signed a political declaration directing all these departments to return to Kenya and their meetings to be held in Nairobi.
Other institutions affiliated with Unep were asked to bring their meetings to Nairobi.
“[We invite] the governing bodies of all the multilateral environmental agreements, in particular those hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme, to consider convening, within their mandates, their meetings more frequently in Nairobi,” the ministers said.
They said not only must Unep offices in Gigiri be upgraded, but all UN member states who have not joined the programme should now do so.
The ministers said the matter was already settled at the UN General Assembly, where members agreed to strengthen the Nairobi office.
“[We] invite all member states and members of specialised agencies who have not yet done so, to become accredited to the United Nations Environment Programme,” the resolution seen by the Star says.
“In that regard, take note with interest of the adoption of General Assembly resolution 76/246 and underline the need to continue improving the United Nations Office at Nairobi, as the only United Nations headquarters duty station in the global South and the host of the headquarters of the Unep and, furthermore, invite the United Nations Office at Nairobi to provide more competitive services.”
In 2018, former Unep executive director Eric Solheim resigned following revelations he was working in Europe, away from Nairobi, 80 per cent of the time.
He also unofficially allowed chosen European staff to work from Europe rather than at Unep headquarters in Nairobi.
An internal UN audit in 2018 showed Solheim alone had spent almost Sh56.95 million ($500,000) on air travel and hotels in just 22 months. He refunded the amount.
Yesterday, the ministers also stressed the importance of advancing equitable geographic distribution and gender parity among the staff of the secretariat of the Unep, particularly in professional and senior-level positions.
Currently, Africans are underrepresented in those positions, although the body is based on the continent.
Unep will now be required to regularly report to the Committee of Permanent Representatives on progress achieved on the diversity of its staff.
The agreement was signed by heads of State and government, ministers and high-level representatives, at the special session of the Unep to mark 50 years since its establishment at the KICC in 1972.
Mid last month, Kenya’s Permanent Representative to Unep Makena Muchiri, complained some of the headquarters departments of Unep are based in France and Geneva.
"We have been talking about how do we bring all that together to Nairobi where Unep is headquartered," she said.
“Unep is a big organisation taking care of other international bodies that are headquartered here. So you cannot push that agenda too much.”
Edited by A.N