Leyla Özay
Technical secretary
The East African Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (EANECE) and the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) are cooperating on the long-term objective to strengthen Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) follow-up in Eastern Africa. As part of this collaboration, EANECE secretariat carried out a needs assessment that will be used as basis to determine priorities and action plans towards improving the practice and results of ESIA follow-up.
Significant details
Based on this needs assessment and its validation with EANECE focal points, the following actions have been identified for the NCEA to prioritise and include in its programming for the Eastern Africa region in the coming years:
a. Developing guidelines and organising training and regional exchange on improving the quality of ESIA/ESMPs and translating these into enforceable license conditions and monitoring these.
b. Organising trainings, knowledge exchange and developing materials on improved stakeholder engagement in ESIA follow up.
c. Organising a regional event about ESIA follow up on transboundary projects with the aim to put this topic on the agenda of regional/national institutions and donors.
d. Carrying out in country and joint reviews on ESMP / audit monitoring reports with site inspections for complex projects.
e. Support local authorities in analysing and strengthening regulatory frameworks for ESIA follow up.
f. Organising actions to encourage transboundary collaboration on ESIA follow up.