Strategic Environmental Assessment in Policy and Sector Reform
The Swedish EIA Centre have partnered with the World Bank in its pilot program on institutions-centred Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in policy and sector reform. The final publication from the project is now available.
The book “Strategic Environmental Assessment in Policy and Sector Reform. Conceptual Model and Operational Guidance” is the final report from the World Bank's institutions-centred SEA pilot program. It presents conclusions and recommendations for SEA in policy and sector reform based on evaluations of six pilot SEAs on sector reforms in Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone, West Africa, Bangladesh and China. The Swedish EIA Centre, the Environmental Economics Unit at the University of Gothenburg and the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment have been partners to the World Bank in the evaluation phase of the project, which has been partly funded by Sida.
The World Bank's SEA approach is developed based on the recognition of sector reform processes as inherently political and driven by strong economic interests. In such a context, traditional technically oriented environmental assessments focusing on estimating impacts are often of less relevance. The book strongly argues that effective environmental assessment in policy and sector reform should focus on analyzing and strengthening the institutions and governance frameworks for managing key environmental priorities. In particular, SEA should strive to strengthen constituencies that can demand improved environmental governance and a system to hold policy makers accountable for their decisions.
The World Bank book acknowledges the need for tailoring SEA to the context of specific sectors and countries. It discusses in detail and illustrates with examples the analytical work and participatory processes required for effective SEA at the policy level. It highlights the need for country ownership for effective SEA at the policy level and suggests that the time is ripe for establishing an international alliance of donors and partner countries for further promoting SEA and environmental and social mainstreaming at the highest strategic level.
"Coming from a natural science background, participating in the pilot program has been instrumental in deepening my understanding of how the political economy of a policy or sector reform process affect environmental governance and the effectiveness of environmental mainstreaming tools such as SEA” says Anna Axelsson at the Swedish EIA Centre.
SEA evaluation in Bangladesh
Anna Axelsson, Mat Cashmore and Ulf G. Sandström evaluated the SEA of the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan in mid-2009. More than 30 people in Dhaka were interviewed during the evaluation, representing government, non-government organizations, research organizations, development agencies and the team that conducted the SEA. Dhaka is a mega-city with around 12 million inhabitants that faces several significant environmental and health related challenges. The city has grown rapidly in an ad hoc manner over the past 40 years, in absence of a functioning planning framework.
"Our evaluation shows that national ownership and capacity to carry out an SEA is crucial for effectiveness," says Anna Axelsson.
"While development cooperation partners can play an important role in raising awareness on and catalyse interest in SEA as a tool for environmental mainstreaming in policy and sector reform processes, the SEA process must be owned and driven by an actor that is prepared – and has the mandate and capacity - to take on and implement its recommendations”.
“The urban planning and environmental governance framework in Bangladesh is weak and fragmented, characterized by the influence of vested interests and a lack of coordination between different actors. The SEA drew attention to the urgency in strengthening these organizations. Our evaluation emphasized the importance of maintaining the mainstreaming process beyond the completion of the SEA through a dedicated national policy proponent, not least in terms of continuing to engage with a wide range of stakeholders”, Anna Axelsson concludes.
The book was launched by the World Bank on November 17, 2010. Please refer to the World Bank website for more information about the project and the book launch.