UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2021-2025)
UNECE is a signatory of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework and contributes in particular to the following strategic priorities:
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Outcome 1.1: By 2025, conflict affected communities enjoy human rights, enhanced human security and resilience.
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Outcome 2.1: By 2025, all people, without discrimination, enjoy enhanced resilience through improved environmental governance, climate action and sustainable management and use of natural resources in Georgia.
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Outcome 2.2: By 2025, all people without discrimination benefit from a sustainable, inclusive and resilient economy in Georgia.
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Outcome 3.1: By 2025, all people in Georgia have equitable and inclusive access to quality, resilient and gender-sensitive services delivered in accordance with international human rights standards.
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Outcome 4.1: By 2025, all people in Georgia enjoy improved good governance, more open, resilient and accountable institutions, rule of law, equal access to justice, human rights, and increased representation and participation of women in decision.
UNECE works in close cooperation with the Resident Coordinator and the United Nations Country Team.
Key highlights
Energy
UNECE supports the Government to improve energy efficiency and increase the share of renewable energy in total energy production (SDG7, SDG11 and SDG13).
Georgia is a beneficiary of projects Improving the energy efficiency of the global building supply chain industry and its products to deliver high performance buildings and Enhancing National Capacities to Develop and Implement Energy Efficiency Standards for Buildings in the UNECE Region.
Together with partners, UNECE has developed Guidelines and Best Practices for Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprises in Delivering Energy-Efficient Products and in Providing Renewable Energy Equipment, including customized guidelines for Georgia.
Georgia is also one of the countries for which UNECE provided an analysis of renewable energy financing and investment.
Environment
Georgia is a Party to 2 UNECE environmental conventions and several of their protocols.
UNECE works closely with Georgia under the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP), and Environmental Performance Review (EPR) Programme (SDG3, SDG11 and SDG13).
UNECE encourages Georgia to accede to the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents and to the Espoo Convention, as well as to ratify the latest Protocols to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, namely the Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone (Gothenburg Protocol), the Protocol on Heavy Metals and the Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) (SDG13).
UNECE has been supporting Georgia in negotiations with Azerbaijan on the Kura Agreement, namely the water-food-energy-ecosystems nexus assessment in the Alazani basin. UNECE encourages Georgia to accede to the Water Convention and to finalize an agreement with Armenia on transboundary monitoring in the Khrami-Debed basin (SDG6, SDG11 and SDG13).
Forests
Georgia’s forest cover stands at 40.5%, much more than any other country in the Caucasus and Central Asia. UNECE is focused on supporting the national policy framework on forest landscape restoration, including national monitoring, assessment and reporting on forests and sustainable forest management, strengthening sustainable urban and peri urban forestry, and value chains for forest sector products and services and benefits to local, forest-dependent population (SDG12, SDG13 and SDG15).
The City of Tbilisi is participating in the UNECE Trees in Cities Challenge.
Gender equality
The standards body of Georgia has signed the Declaration on Gender-Responsive Standards and Standards Development (SDG5, SDG9 and SDG12).
Population
The new UNECE Guidelines for Mainstreaming Ageing for the region can help Georgia uphold the commitments of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and identify concrete actions relevant to its national economic, social, cultural and political specificities (SDG3 and SDG11).
Statistics
UNECE supports Georgia through capacity-building activities and various projects to implement its Generic Statistical Business Process Model. It is finalizing a Global Assessment of the National Statistical System of Georgia, to feed into a new National Strategy for the Development of Statistics from 2024. A sectoral review of environmental statistics is planned, along with various other follow-up activities based on the Global Assessment (SDG11).
Trade
UNECE supports the national government in the implementation of the recommendations related to non-tariff-measures (NTMs) governing trade in goods (SDG8, SDG9, SDG12).
Georgia is a pilot country of the UNECE technical assistance activities in the circular economy under the UNDA funded project “Accelerating the transition to a circular economy in the UNECE region”.
Georgia participated in the new flagship project “Sub-regional Innovation Policy Outlook: Eastern Europe and South Caucasus” and agreed to pilot a new methodology. Planned capacity-building activities include the development of gap analysis and roadmap for accelerating circular economy in the priority area of waste management. In addition, the Innovation for Sustainable Development Review of Georgia provides an in-depth analysis of current innovation policies and how they contribute to Georgia’s sustainable development priorities (SDG8, SDG9, SDG12).
Transport
Georgia has acceded to 18 UN legal instruments on inland transport. It is invited to accede to the 2008 Additional Protocol to the CMR concerning the Electronic Consignment Note (e-CMR) to receive benefits from the digitalized document under the CMR Convention. UNECE has already assisted Georgia to interconnect their national customs system with eTIR international system and share all relevant information to support border crossing facilitation (SDG8 and SDG9).
Georgia is a beneficiary of the project “Building resilient, climate adaptive and economically viable transport infrastructure networks,” which aims to strengthen international cooperation to develop sustainable Euro-Asian transport links (SDG8 and SDG9).
With respect to road safety, the UNECE Georgia Road Safety Performance Review stresses the need to update national legislation on safe vehicles (SDG3 and SDG11).
Urban development
UNECE assists the Government in the development of national urban and housing policies through the preparation of country and city profiles on urban development (Smart Sustainable Cities Profile: Tbilisi, Georgia), housing and land management and thematic studies on affordable and energy-efficient housing, as well as national land administration systems (SDG7 and SDG11).
UNECE also promotes smart sustainable and resilient urban development through the development of smart sustainable cities profiles based on the UNECE/ITU key performance indicators for smart sustainable cities, and through the preparation of SDG Voluntary Local Reviews (SDG3 and SDG11).