ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP) on Tuesday agreed to cooperate on environmental assessment for three of the co-funded projects.

The agreement to this effect was signed here and covers gender support programme ($32 million), improving citizen’s engagement through devolution (supporting devolution trust for community empowerment $51.46 million) and support to the 2007 elections ($53.5 million).

Dr Yusaf Samiullah, head DFID Pakistan and Haoliang Xu country director UNDP, signed the agreement worth $50 million.

This agreement comes as a result of extensive discussions between the two agencies regarding environmental concerns around the implementation of the projects.

Both agencies together not only would review environmental appraisals but also provide expertise through periodic monitoring and give recommendations.

The idea is to assess potential damage in advance so that communities do not face problems in the long run.