Division Of Early Warning And Assessment MODULE 4: MANAGING THE ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING PROCESS

Division Of Early Warning And AssessmentIntroduction This module discusses the involvement of various groups of people in the IEA process. It highlights:  the Importance of the IEA process,  who should get involved and the level of involvement for different groups of people,  how important issues should be decided, and  how the IEA process could be managed.

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment IEA Process  IEA is a continuous process  Its organization and management should allow scientists from various fields of environmental pursuits (transdisciplinary) to decide the important issues for analysis in collaboration with a broad but manageable range of civil society  The institutional setting that is entrusted with the leadership should have a legal mandate to conduct or provide leadership in all aspects of environmental assessment and reporting, and to expect the participation of other institutions as an necessary obligation

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Importance of the IEA Process  It is a learning process for all that get involved assisting to build capacity on knowledge about the environment  It provides a broad basis for:  Supporting sustainable development  Exploring linkages between policy, the economy, society and environment  Developing appropriate policy packages  Encouraging good governance and ownership of the report  Bringing together fragmented knowledge and streamlining issues of policy formulation  Facilitating cooperation of policy makers across government and beyond

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Involvement in the IEA process  Communication in Africa with different social groups is particularly difficult. Involvement in the IEA process should not be taken for granted for any social group  Planners of the process should make extra effort to include poorer communities which are commonly overlooked  Contribution of poorer marginalized communities may be unique, e.g may add indigenous knowledge.

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Involvement in the IEA process may be on three major levels  Information dissemination – civil society is informed of environmental policies either already made or about to be made and is allowed to comment. Their comments may not influence the outcome.  Consultation – at some time before or after the environmental policy is drawn up, the opinions of civil society are solicited. Its opinions and views are expected to influence the final policy formulated.  Participation – continuous communication between civil society, policy drafting groups and decision makers. Final environmental policy is the outcome of direct and complete involvement of the three groups.

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Involvement in the IEA process in practice  Different groups of civil society are involved at different levels depending on their level of interest and relevance for a particular issue of the report  Only a number of manageable representatives are involved, not everybody relevant Some suggestions on levels of involvement in different issues: IssueSection of civil societyLevel of involvement AgricultureFarming communities Taxi drivers Participate Inform Water resourcesAllParticipate DeforestationSchool teachers Urban communities Mining communities Participate Consult inform

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment AEO Process uses all three levels In the development of the AEO, all three levels are used  Participation – special working groups (e.g on policy, capacity-building, data, etc.)  Consultation – with thematic groups  Information dissemination – general public

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Deciding important issues in the process  The whole range of issues relevant to environmental assessment cannot be included in a report. Early selection of a manageable list of the most important issues is important.  Importance of issues will differ with scale of analysis (regional, sub-regional, national, etc.) and among different countries or other regions of analysis  It is advisable to start with a long list of relevant issues drawn up by experts from which a manageable list may be selected by a wide range of stakeholders.  This process was used to decide on important issues for AEO-2

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Management of the process at the national level  Existing structures at the national level may be difficult to modify to accommodate the IEA process; the process normally is made to fit into existing structures.  No overall “best” management structures are agreed on but best practices in many African countries show the importance of a key existing department in a ministry or a new department or authority.  The coordinating role of the key department or authority requires a level of clout over other departments

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Possible organizational chart PARLIAMENT

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Possible organization At the national level in an African country, it has been considered appropriate to put environmental assessment and reporting directly under cabinet responsibility. One possible organization:  Parliament – legislative, policy making body  Cabinet – final decision making authority  Relevant Ministry – e.g. Ministry of Environment, champions the cause of the IEA process but works in close collaboration with other ministries  Environmental Authority – the workhorse on environmental matters in the Ministry of Environment  Expert technical advisory groups – participants with specialised knowledge  Stakeholder focus groups – representatives of various social organizations

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Management of the process at the sub-national level  More analytical assessment of an independent or semi-independent agency may be made because it may have more advantages than would be the case at the national level:  Will start with a clean slate avoiding inter-departmental bickering  May be more independent in getting funds in addition to funds from government  May more easily link with NGOs

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment The legal mandate  IEA requires that many departments and organizations work together attending to specific responsibilities under tight time budgets  Each participant must have the legal responsibility to carry out what is expected and the authority to demand others’ inputs  Legislation at the national level required to define relationships, responsibilities, authority and expectations for a successful IEA process.  Beyond national level, governments should provide mandates to the appropriate reporting institution.

Division Of Early Warning And Assessment Legislation could be particularly used at the national level for:  Setting the stage for collaboration expected between government agencies  Encouraging data sharing and harmonization  Defining rules for external consultation and participation  Defining the rules for sustainable local capacity building to replace external assistance