UNSOS is committed to reduce the environmental footprint of the mission
in its host country, Somalia. It wants to improve the environmental performance
of the mission by introducing sustainable design and operation (as much as the
situation in Somalia permits). This means addressing solid waste, wastewater,
use of energy and resource management as whole. UNSOS wants to achieve this by
introducing a systematic Environmental Management System (EMS) to each sector
of the mission, which can be approved by an international organization of
standards (ISO) in the long-term.
Currently, UNSOS has a mission specific Environmental Policy (pending
approval) that was drafted in reference to DPKO/DFS
Environmental Policy for UN Field Missions, established in June 2009. The
policy defines environmental standards and objectives for UN field missions as
follows:
“Each United
Nations field mission will take actions to integrate environmental measures
into its planning and operations in order to avoid and minimize the impact of
activities carried out by the mission and its staff on the environment and to
protect human health from such environmental impact. ?Such measures will be undertaken throughout all phases of a United
Nations field mission, including: Initial planning of the mission; setting up of logistic arrangements for the mission; maintenance and
operations of the mission; closing of the mission.” ?
An environmental policy (by itself) does not bring about a change in
practices. Only the EMS is a guarantee that the Environmental Policy is
actually implemented and that applicable standards are consistently met by the
organisation during its operation. Only through the operationalization of a
policy will it be possible to minimise the environmental footprint of sector
hubs and associated operations. Hence, the EMS means the operationalization of the environmental policy in place
and to achieve set objectives and targets.
The Secretary General (SG) in his letter to the president of the Security Council dated 7 October
2015 (S/2015/762 on the review of AMISOM and UNSOA) underlined that:
“The impact on the environment of the United
Nations-supported activities in Somalia also remains a concern. The review
noted the absence of an environmental baseline study, dedicated environmental
management capacities and an African Union environmental policy to guide AMISOM
operations, particularly with regard to wastewater management.”
The strengthening of UNSOA and its conversion into UNSOS also includes
the development of capacities for adequate environmental management.
The Board of Auditors in its 2015 review of the operation of UNSOA formulated the following
recommendations:
·
UNSOS is to develop a plan for undertaking and updating periodically
environmental baseline studies of all Mission's locations in order to comply
with DPKO/DFS Policy on Environment for UN Field Missions.
·
UNSOS is (a) develop a guideline of maintaining records of waste produce
in the Mission; and (b) develop a database of waste produced in the Mission and
update it accordingly.
·
UNSOS is to develop effective mechanism such as action plan and effective
monitoring system for ensuring the Mission comply with the environmental policy
requirements.
The subsequent Security Council
Resolution (S/2015/840) stated the following:
“Further requests the Secretary-General to consider the environmental impact
of the UN fulfilling its mandated tasks, including carrying out an
environmental baseline study and regular environmental impact assessments of
the operations of UNSOM and UNSOS.”
All of the above mentioned elements point towards the fact that missions
need to take practical measures to obtain tangible results in order to meet the
guidelines set forth in the DPKO/DFS Policy.
