This report provides an assessment of environmental conditions and policies in the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA). It supported discussions at the Conference of EECCA Ministers and their Partners that took place in Tbilisi, Georgia in October 2004 and will serve as a baseline against which Environment Ministers assess progress in implementing the EECCA Environment Strategy when they meet in 2007 in Belgrade for the sixth “Environment for Europe” Ministerial Conference.

The report finds that a significant burden of environmental disease persists (one out of 1 000 children born in Tajikistan dies before the age of five due to diarrhoeal diseases closely associated to lack of safe water) and, despite low income levels, natural resources are under heavy pressure (nine out of the 12 countries are water-stressed).

In EECCA current policies are often ineffective in stimulating significant improvements, scarce resources are spent without clear programmatic frameworks, and policy integration is very limited. Knowledge transfer and institutional development are required to facilitate policy reform and to tackle strategic and operational bottlenecks.

Read the Executive Summary.