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13 Assessment of effectiveness
In October 2012, the Executive Director of UNEP, Achim
Steiner, wrote in a letter
151
to our Chairman, Olav Orheim,
that “
GRID-Arendal has emerged as one of the most effec-
tive collaboration centres in the UNEP family
, helping to
position UNEP as a strong, science-based organisation,
able to respond expeditiously to the needs of governments
and international policy processes.” The letter was also
a topic when the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs
and Defence (‘Utenriks- og forsvarskomiteen’) of the Nor-
wegian Parliament (Stortinget) invited GRID-Arendal for a
public hearing on “Norge og FN: Felles framtid, felles løs-
ninger” (“Norway and the UN: common future, common
solutions”). In the parliamentarian committee’s official
response (‘instilling’) to the Government, GRID-Arendal
and UNEP are specifically mentioned in the context that
it is important for Norway to develop the relationships
between Norwegian-based organisations and UN institu-
tions and organisations in order to make UN organisa-
tions more effective.
152
151. See letter in Annex 1
152.
http://www.stortinget.no/Saker-og-publikasjoner/Saker/Sak/?p=54599
Signs that GRID-Arendal is seen as an effective and ef-
ficient partner of UNEP are the increasing requests and
contracts from UNEP for “Rapid Response Assess-
ments” (RRAs) on urgent global issues. On very short
notice and within tight time frames, GRID-Arendal has
produced in 2012-13 the following RRAs:
Green Carbon,
Black Trade: Illegal Logging, Tax Fraud and Laundering in
the World’s Tropical Forests; Stolen Apes: The Illicit Trade
in Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos and Orangutans; Ele-
phants in the Dust: The African Elephant Poaching Crisis;
and Food Lost, Food Waste: Food Security by Restoring Eco-
systems and Reducing Food Loss
.
A total of 26 publications
153
were produced during the bi-
ennium in collaboration with UNEP and other partners.
Some of our publications had an immediate impact on
political decisions in the frame of international conven-
tions, such as the Minamata (Mercury) Convention or
CITES.
153. See chapter 10 for full list of publications produced during
biennium 2012-2013