How to strengthen the independence of IA reviewers and practitioners?

12 January 2021

Rob Verheem - director of the NCEA - started a discussion on the role of independence of IA practitioners. He suggests to consider the establishment of a professional IAIA standard. Not necessarily to be used as a benchmark, but to inspire and support IA reviewers and practitioners to achieve the highest level of independence, feasible within their context. One of the reason to start this discussion was that IAIA19 conference organisers stated that lack of independence in preparing IA documentation is one of the “common and long standing criticisms of Impact Assessment”. If true, this perception is a serious problem for the profession.