The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) plays a catalytic role in facilitating sustainable development in Afghanistan. The SDU is undertaking appropriate policy and programmatic interventions for integrating sustainable development principles in the national development framework. SDU is supporting the Afghani government and the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) in dealing with climate change adaptation and mitigation and mainstreaming poverty-environment-education development linkages. The goal is also to achieve compliance with the Rio+20 process and institutionalize these topics at the ministerial level. UNIQUE supported SDU in elaborating several framework documents considering the changing development context in Afghanistan and the compliance with international conventions.

• Climate Change Strategy for Afghanistan considering international negotiations under UNFCCC.
• Guideline to update the State of the Environment (SoE) Report
• Draft roadmap for the institutionalization of the SoE process at NEPA.
• Conceptual strategy for integrating environmental issues in the Afghan educational system.
• Sustainable Development Vision and Rio+20 follow-up actions.