061-i. Advisory review: SEA for coastal development study and plan - Albania

The NCEA advised on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process and interim report for the South Coast Development Study and Plan in Albania. This case served as a pilot SEA under the World Bank's SEA capacity building programme.

Advisory reports and other documents

Significant details

As part of the World Bank's support to SEA capacity development in Albania, a pilot SEA was executed to familiarize the various stakeholders with the SEA process. The South Coast Development Plan was selected for this pilot SEA. As a first step in this process, an interim report titled South Coast Development Study was submitted to Albanian authorities, which was intended to form the basis for the Development Plan and Policy Action Plan. The World Bank approached the NCEA and asked it to provide independent advice on the SEA process and to carry out an independent quality review of the SEA report.

To fulfil this request, the NCEA reviewed the interim report in close cooperation with relevant ministries and with the consultants that drafted this report. It concluded that the assessment part of the study is of good quality, but that other stages of the SEA process (screening, scoping, the link to decision-making, and monitoring) are underrepresented. This could however be repaired, as the Development Plan itself was still under construction. Some other comments of the NCEA were:

• The quality of the information is good, however it should be better focused on the decisions to be taken;
• A good start has been made in participation but especially in Plan development extra efforts should be realized;
• To improve transparency of the process and of decision-making, main information and decisions should be made available in the Albanian language.

Parties involved

Members of the working group

Chair: Klaas-Jan Beek
Technical secretary: Ineke Steinhauer

Proponent and Component Authority

Further details

Country: Albania

Last modified: 28 May 2019