In 2001 the Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GMEF) convened an Open-ended Intergovernmental Group of Ministers or Their Representatives on International Environmental Governance to report on improving coherence in international policy making, improving the effectiveness of multilateral environmental agreements and enhancing the role of UNEP. Its final report, culminating in a decision adopted at the UNEP Governing Council’s seventh Special Session held in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2002, identified, among other things, the key role of the UN Environmental Management Group, established by the UN Secretary-General in 1999 to bring the environment into the mainstream of UN system activities and to enhance policy coordination across the environmental activities of the UN system and beyond, including the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO). With background, meetings and documents, and contacts.
