Given the potential for synergies and cooperative efforts among the MEAs, the Secretariats supporting these conventions can achieve much more when they work together. Calls for MEA Secretariats to coordinate their efforts in order to avoid duplication of efforts and take advantage of potential synergies have become more frequent lately, but coordination efforts date back at least a decade.
UNEP has been active in this area, given the number of MEA Secretariats it supports and its expertise as the UN body charged with environmental matters generally. In 1993, UNEP’s Governing Council directed UNEP “to promote the coherent coordination of the functioning of environmental conventions, including their Secretariats, with a view to 
improving the effectiveness of the implementation of the Conventions” (Decision 17/25). This directive was founded on a call for action to the same effect provided in chapter 38 of Agenda 21. These activities are described in more detail below.
The large number of MEAs can result in institutional coordination challenges as different authorities and institutions assume responsibility for implementing different but related MEAs. Similarly, it is interesting to note that coordination problems at the national level can sometimes cause coordination problems at the international level, as the process of international consensus building often builds upon national approaches and institutions. As such, in certain instances, there is a need to promote synergies and coordination at the international and national levels. [Guideline 42
addresses institutional coordination at the national level in more detail.]
With respect to improving coordination among MEA Secretariats, there are three key reasons for promoting synergies and inter-linkages in MEA development and implementation:
- the growth in the number of environmental issues that countries face, the complexity of those issues, and the number of existing MEAs that seek to respond to those issues;
- the national-level challenge for most countries in meeting their obligations under the MEAs (particularly the lack of human and financial resources of developing countries to implement MEAs); and
- many of these needs can be met in full or in part through synergies among MEAs that currently are underutilised.
UNEP has recognised this and, through various decisions, has called for studies, pilot projects, and initiatives to improve the implementation of MEAs by paying particular attention to synergies and inter-linkages. As a result, UNEP and some COPs of MEAs — as well as UNDP and UNU, among other UN bodies — have undertaken a number of innovative initiatives to promote synergies. For example, the National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA) process [described following Guideline 41(n)] explicitly encourages States to consider synergies among MEAs, particularly the UNFCCC, CBD, and UNCCD.