The kind of assistance and the way it is provided differs from country to country. The kind of technical assistance depends both on the request of assistance made by country itself, and on the outcome of initial fact finding missions (scoping mission), carried out by UNEP's legal officers. In providing assistance UNEP co-operates with other bodies or agencies such as UNDP, IUCN, the World Bank and FAO, as well as regional and national institutions.

In general terms, technical assistance usually develops along the following steps.

Needs Assessment Mission: Usually the first step is the complete identification of assistance needs of the requesting State. An examination of the existing legislative and institutional problems, priorities and policies is undertaken through a mission to the requesting country by UNEP's legal officers. This is followed by a detailed report with recommendations regarding the preliminary determination of the country’s legislative and institutional needs or requirements and by an in-depth review and analysis of existing legal framework and institutional arrangements. The country concerned is involved in all the activities.

Review of Legislation and Institutions: Based on the recommendations of the needs assessment missions and on Government requests, a thorough review of existing legislation relevant to environmental management and national environmental policy, including institutional structures, is conducted, in order to identify legislative shortcomings or requirements for environmental protection and sustainable development. Recommendations on the necessary legislative and institutional reforms required are made and lead to the drafting of the required legal instruments to implement the proposals. This task is undertaken, following the new approach, relying on national consultants or setting up a national task force.

Drafting of Legislation: The new policy is to have national Task Forces draft the environmental legislation with the support of UNEP's legal officers.  They are well placed to provide such support in view of their experience in working in the field of environmental legislation at national level.

Enhancement of Local Capacity/ Use of National Consultants or of National Task Forces: UNEP’s activities in developing countries and countries with economies in transition aim at creating self sufficiency in the relevant expertise in the countries concerned, avoiding continuous dependence on UNEP or other international organisations for assistance. Therefore, UNEP makes an effort to utilise national experts and local consultants in the execution of the tasks requested to ensure that while UNEP offers assistance, it also builds the local capacity within the countries concerned. The second mechanism on which UNEP relies is the use of cross-sectoral National Task Forces, of up to ten persons drawn from relevant government departments, to work in collaboration with UNEP, to execute the agreed programme of activities.

In practical terms, once a request from a developing country is accepted for assistance by UNEP, a participatory and consultative programme of activities is drawn up in collaboration with the relevant government authorities. UNEP normally funds and supervises the effective implementation of the programme but the activities are largely performed by the national experts themselves.

Development of Framework Environmental Laws: In assisting developing countries to develop environmental legal and institutional arrangements, UNEP has been recommending the drafting of new framework environmental laws, so as to develop the existing use and resources-oriented laws into system-oriented legislation. Where framework environmental laws had already been enacted, UNEP has been assisting governments to draft sectoral legislation or enabling regulations to integrate the environmental framework legislation.

Development of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Laws: UNEP's Governing Council recommended as one of the major areas of focus the promotion of “widespread use of EIA procedures by Governments […] as an essential element in development planning and for assessing the effects of potentially harmful activities on the environment”. UNEP’s task according to this mandate is to assist countries to fulfil their commitment to enhance the integration of EIAs into the planning process at the national level.

Establishment/Strengthening of Institutional Arrangements: The effective implementation of environmental legislation depends very much on the existence of appropriate institutional arrangements for cross sectoral co-ordination; in most developing countries, the sectoral approach to environmental management has impeded or failed to facilitate the implementation of environmental management in an integrated manner. The need to increase the effectiveness of institutional mechanisms for resource management and to co-ordinate and harmonise environment policies and activities led to the creation of directorates of environment under the sectoral ministries responsible for the environment.
Review of the Status of Implementation of International Instruments: UNEP has assisted many developing countries to develop national laws to implement international environmental conventions, in collaboration with the convention secretariats. In doing so, UNEP has tried also to build up the capacity of the country concerned to implement and enforce the environmental conventions.

Public Participation Throughout the Technical Assistance Process: Input from the widest possible sectors of the society to be affected by a new environmental policy or legislative instrument is essential to its successful implementation. Therefore, UNEP’s new policy is to encourage and facilitate the provision, through national seminars, interviews and exchanges of information and opinion throughout the implementation of all the above-mentioned steps, of an opportunity for building the necessary consensus on the policy framework and the legislative instruments. NGOs, the private sector, the community at large, citizen groups, academia and so on, are usually invited to participate.

UNEP’s technical assistance efforts have brought important results, in terms of effective changes in the legal and policy frameworks in the target geographical contexts.

The impact of capacity building activities through technical assistance can be summarised as follows:
- creation of new environmental laws and institutions;
- co-ordination, harmonisation, updating and strengthening of existing environmental legislation;
- strengthened and enhanced co-ordination of environmental institutions;
- promotion of the use of Environmental Impact Assessment procedures;
- enhanced capacity to adopt decisions on strong knowledge basis;
- improved capacity to actively participate in international negotiations of environmental legal instruments, and therefore enhanced partnership in international environmental conventions.

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