Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water, Sanitation May -June 2014 Vol.9 No.3 | Page 22

Post-2015 Development Agenda
international action, the new body represents the new
political arm for the protection of the environment and
aims to ensure environmental sustainability is recognized
as a global priority.
The universal membership assembly, which replaced
UNEP’s Governing Council, reflects the commitment
of world leaders at Rio +20 to strengthen and upgrade
UNEP as “the leading global environmental authority that
sets the global environmental agenda, that promotes the
coherent implementation of the environmental dimension
of sustainable development within the United Nations
system and that serves as an authoritative advocate for the
global environment.”
UNEA will tackle diverse environmental challenges
and emerging issues of global, regional and national
significance. Such challenges will impact the extent
to which governments and other stakeholders can
successfully implement sustainable development at
different levels.
At its first session, UNEA is expected to declare
a common vision and determine future global
environmental policy; a mandate first conferred upon
UNEP’s Governing Council by the 1972 United Nations
General Assembly resolution 2997 and subsequently
enhanced through the Rio +20 outcome - The Future We
Want.

UNEP Pays Tribute to Senior Chemicals Advisor,
Matthew Gubb
UNEP lost Senior
Chemicals Advisor,
Matthew Gubb, who
passed away peacefully
at his home in France
on 4 May 2014.
A New Zealander
with a doctorate
in International
The Late Matthew Gubb,
Relations from
Oxford University and
Master’s degrees in Political Science and Strategic Studies,
Matthew joined UNEP in 2001. He held the position
of UNEP Senior Advisor to th