UNEP Perspectives Publication - Issue 11

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Publication Date: March 2014 

STRENGTHENING UNEP’S LEGITIMACY: TOWARDS GREATER STAKEHOLDERENGAGEMENT

UNEP´s mandate in the international arena has been enlarged by the United Nations 

General Assembly (UNGA) and its legitimacy increased through the establishment of a 

new Universal Membership body, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA). It 

is now time to examine how UNEP can further increase its legitimacy and effectiveness 

by improving its engagement with civil society. UNEP initially engaged in dialogue 

with formal, registered environmental NGOs. In 2002 civil society engagement shifted 

to the nine major groups, and since 2004 has expanded to include major groups and 

stakeholders. However, while the elaboration of major groups and stakeholders was an 

improvement on the initial design of NGO engagement, UNEP faced a number of new 

challenges as this paper illustrates. 

An independent expert group appointed by UNEP has suggested that the advisory 

function of stakeholders should be separated from the representative function, and 

that civil society engagement would be enhanced by shifting some responsibilities for 

organization to civil society itself. No system is fool proof, but if the system is subject 

to periodic review and allows for institutional learning, it may result in a practical and 

more effective way of scaling up participative processes at global level.