726-i. Colombia Capacity Development
At the request of the Ministry of Environment of Colombia and the World Bank, the NCEA has been involved in capacity building on both EIA and SEA from 2006 to 2010.
Significant details
Started: 2006
Completed: 2010
Process and activities
The NCEA contributed to three workshops in Colombia in 2006:
- A workshop for academia participants on setting up EIA and SEA curricula;
- A half day training on SEA for technical civil servants;
- A regional 3-day training workshop on biodiversity in SEA.
After these activities, the Ministry of Environment of Colombia requested the NCEA to support implementation of SEA in Colombia. This resulted in an MoU for a 4-year programme of the NCEA. During this programme, the NCEA focused on:
- Assistance in two pilot SEAs: the National Plan for environmental health and the Plan for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation;
- Support to the development of SEA regulation, sector guidelines and a manual;
- Linkages between environmental assessment instruments;
- Capacity development in SEA, e.g. via a seminar on EIA/SEA in the mining sector.
In addition, the NCEA provided comments on an SEA manual and an SEA for biofuels, and issued an advice of the secretariat on the Bahia de Malaga.
Results
The NCEA's activities in Colombia contributed to better understanding and capacities on SEA in the Environmental Ministry and other SEA-related actors.
Follow-up
Late 2010, the NCEA received a request to support the Tolima departmental government with impact assessment and monitoring for large-scale mining. Due to other priorities of the Colombian government, however, the requested support did not materialize. Early 2013, the NCEA received another request which was successfully fulfilled, concerning an independent quality review of an EIA report for the new access canal in the Bay of Cartagena.
Parties involved
Members of the working group
Technical secretary: Ineke Steinhauer
Further details
Country: Colombia
Last modified: 01 Apr 2019