About ASEM
India and Germany agreed that environmental management is an important area in the framework of bilateral development co-operation. Environment is one of the most important areas in the Indo-German bilateral relations, especially in areas where Germany has comparative advantage with focus on knowledge transfer, technology transfer, exchange of experiences and demonstration projects. To enhance the success of the previous joint work, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ,) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India (MoEF) decided to work in a structure called Advisory Services in Environment Management (ASEM) Programme. The structure is within the scope of the bilateral negotiations between the Republic of India and the Federal Republic of Germany held on September 5, 1996 in pursuance of the Agreement of 31December, 1971 between the two Governments regarding Technical Cooperation as amended by the Arrangement of 8th February/1st March 1979.
On 24 May 2002, the Indian Government had conveyed approval for commencement of the orientation phase of the Advisory Services in Environmental Management (ASEM). The new structure of ASEM is within the scope of the bilateral negotiations between the Republic of India and the Federal Republic of Germany held on September 5, 1996 in pursuance of the Agreement of 31 December 1971 between the two Governments regarding Technical Cooperation as amended by the Arrangements of 8th February/1st March 1979.The opening phase was for the period 2002 to 2005. In the Indo-German negotiations held in Jan’04 and July’04 it was decided that the first phase of the ASEM Programme would be extended from 2005 until 2008. The ongoing second phase of Programme is for the period April 2009 to February 2012.
The aim of Indo-German Cooperation during 2009 to 2012 with the focal area as Environmental Management is to make common contributions to the achievement of the MDGs and implementation of the international environmental conventions (UNFCCC, UNCCD, UNCBD) with focus on strengthening India’s developmental efforts, intensifying partnerships between India and Germany, establishing linkages and partnerships between German and Indian institutions and sustainable urban and industrial development by working towards delinking economic growth from resource consumption.
ASEM represents a flexible programme structure and is an umbrella for the projects related to the protection of industrial and urban environment as well promoting sustainable consumption and consumer protection. The overall objective of the ongoing 2nd phase of the ASEM Programme is: “Solutions for efficient environment management in urban and industrial areas and solutions for strengthening consumer protection that is oriented towards sustainability are successfully implemented and are increasingly propagated”.
The ASEM Programme is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India (MoEF). The Programme implementation is supported by the former InWEnt (now a part of GIZ) in the area of training and networking with focus on industrial disaster risk management and sustainable city development, and the Federal Agency for Physics and Technology (PTB) in the area of quality infrastructure for environmental analytics.
For more information on ASEM, please visit www.asemindia.com
