In 2020, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’s celebrated the 26th anniversary of their Joint Environment Unit, commonly referred to as the UNEP/OCHA JEU. The JEU has been spearheading global efforts toward the response and preparedness aspects of environmental emergencies. Since its inception, the JEU has assisted in 221 missions in more than 70 countries. Seeking to assess its impacts since its creation, the Joint Unit has commissioned an impact evaluation of its response missions to environmental dimensions of emergencies. This report is the final delivery of the project and casts light on the most important aspects of the JEU’s impacts during response missions.
Scrutinizing the work of the JEU highlights its relevance on the international scene of environmental emergencies assistance. Its global network model entails facilitated access to and
the deployment of world-class experts to assist in any type of environmental emergency. Moreover, the JEU’s assistance reduces costs for countries that do not have the expertise to cope
with sudden-onset hazards, especially for developing countries. This is coherent with the reasoning behind the Unit’s creation, which was to assist parties of the United Nations that did
not possess the technical expertise to deal with environmental emergencies