Strategic Environmental Assessment/Analysis
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Publication
Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience: A Guideline for Project Developers
(World Bank, 2023-05-12)This document aims to guide the design, implementation, and use of studies to value the benefits and costs of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for climate resilience projects. Reliable quantification of the costs and benefits of NBS for climate resilience can facilitate further mainstreaming of these interventions by articulating the value proposition of NBS across sectors, improve impact evaluation, and for identifying additional funding and financing for projects. This report provides an overview of methods and approaches, along with a decision framework to guide the design of NBS cost and benefit assessment. The decision framework presented should enable project developers to come up with a cost-effective approach for quantifying the benefits and costs of NBS that is effective and convincing in the context of climate resilience projects. To illustrate this in practical applications, eight case studies from World Bank projects are also included to better show how different valuation methods are applied in the field. -
Publication
Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Myanmar Hydropower Sector
(World Bank, Yangon, 2018)The Myanmar hydropower sector, in the early stages of development, has the opportunity to develop sustainably by balancing electricity generation with environmental and social outcomes. The country is currently following a conventional hydropower development process, with individual projects identified and approved without due consideration of the overall cumulative impacts that multiple projects and other pressures have on the river basin. In many countries this process has resulted in most major rivers and tributaries suitable for hydropower being developed, regulating these watercourses for 50-100 years and beyond. Significant cumulative impacts on basin health and related ecosystem services have resulted, with minimal opportunity available to lessen these impacts. This Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Myanmar hydropower sector considers environmental and social values at the river basin level, recommending an approach to achieve sustainable hydropower development. The SEA recommends moving the initial planning focus away from individual projects to basin health to plan a sustainable sector development. -
Publication
Strategic Environmental Assessment for Industry Sector Himachal Pradesh, India
(Washington, DC, 2013-12-23)This strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a technical piece intended to assist in the current and future identification of priority industrial pollutants and economic instruments to minimize industrial waste. This industrial sector SEA is one of six pieces of technical support envisioned by the Himachal Pradesh (HP) inclusive green growth (IGG) development policy loan (DPL) to fill knowledge gaps and strengthen operational success of the DPL. The DPL acknowledges that industrial development is an important economic driver within HP, and that such development must be consistent with maintaining the integrity of other natural resource assets on which human health depend. The general objectives of the SEA study are: (i) to assist in identification of priority pollutants and industries; (ii) to review existing institutional structures that address these pollutants; (iii) to identify and recommend potential reform options through the introduction of new policy approaches; and (iv) to identify complementary institutional support necessary to implement such a program. The SEA was undertaken from April to December 2013 based on secondary data collection, existing literature, various consultative meetings with key stakeholders, and diagnostic analyses of this information. The purpose of the consultations was to discuss the findings, issues, and preliminary directions suggested by the desk reviews, and to initiate a work plan for amassing additional information. The SEA has included participatory approaches to ensure that presented policy changes are designed and implemented in a way that is responsive to the different segments of HP society. This report is presented in three parts. Part one forms a foundation for focusing subsequent diagnostic work by providing more extensive detail on the institutional context, pollution situation, health and environmental linkages, and opportunities for using economic instruments. Part two performs additional diagnostic analyses to inform the core recommendations relating to options for new economic instruments, institutional reforms, and capacity building; these recommendations are presented in part three. -
Publication
European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument East Countries Forest Law Enforcement and Governance II Program
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-05-16)The European neighborhood and partnership instrument east countries forest law enforcement and second governance program will support the participating countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine) in strengthening forest governance through improving implementation of relevant international processes, enhancing their forest policy, legislation and institutional capacity, and developing, testing and evaluating sustainable forest management models at the local level on a pilot basis for future replication. The main development objectives of the program are aimed to make progress in implementing and reviewing policies documents, in testing and demonstrate the best practices for sustainable forest management. The program consists of regional, national and sub-national components supporting the continuation of phase one activities, organizing joint meetings during the program implementation, promoting a good investment climate and a credible private sector operators, maintaining a high-quality internet site in English and Russian and other program's activities as described below in the special section. This program will support strengthening forest governance through improving implementation of relevant international processes, enhancing their forest policy, legislation and institutional arrangements, and developing, testing and evaluating sustainable forest management models. The main scope of this program to create processes to address the complex and politically sensitive issues associated with illegal logging, timber and forest resource degradation, smuggling, and trade of illegal timber and wood fuel products at the national and regional levels. -
Publication
Strategic Environmental Assessment in the World Bank: Learning from Recent Experience and Challenges
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-09)This report presents the results of a review of the World Bank's Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) experience undertaken by the World Bank learning community-the SEA Community of Practice (CoP). This report is no more than a first step. Its findings and results cannot be treated as conclusive. The World Bank follows the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in describing SEA as 'analytical and participatory approaches to strategic decision-making that aim to integrate environmental considerations into policies, plans and programs, and evaluate the inter linkages with economic and social considerations'. Over time SEA has become more strategic by bringing different groups of stakeholders into an environmental and social dialogue in an iterative and adaptive way. Impact-centered approaches to SEA best fit to integrate environmental considerations in plans and programs where environmental impacts and risks can be identified and predicted. Country environmental analysis is a type of policy SEA developed to inform the dialogue between the Bank and client countries on national environmental priorities. The main objective is to strengthen Bank staff's capacity on SEA by fostering learning in applying SEA in World Bank-supported projects and thus contribute to sustainable development outcomes in programs, plans, and policies of client countries. To achieve this objective, among other activities of the SEA CoP, there is a component to take stock of the Bank's recent regional experience with the following scope of work. The structure of this report organized as: chapter two presents the synthesis and conclusions from the cross-analysis of the regional reviews. Chapters three through eight present the findings and conclusions of the regional reviews. Chapter three on the SEA experience in East Asia and the Pacific focuses on the use of SEA mainly as a tool for environmental safeguarding. Chapter four analyzes the use of SEA as a planning and policy tool drawing on the Middle East and North Africa experience. A mixed experience with impact-centered and policy SEA approaches is described by chapter five on South Asia. Chapter six on Sub-Saharan Africa shows a trend of using SEA initially for environmental safeguarding but later for informing policy making. Chapter seven shows that sector reforms and infrastructure developments have influenced the use of SEA in Latin America. And the mixed results of promoting SEA practice by making it regionally mandatory through the European Union's SEA directive are described in chapter eight on Europe and Central Asia. -
Publication
Water Hackathon : Lessons Learned
(Washington, DC, 2012-05)The global revolution in low cost information and communication technologies can help address some of the developing world's oldest challenges in water and sanitation. More people today have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet. Convergence of widespread mobile phone ownership with new mobile commerce and location aware services offer new platforms for reach, transparency and participation in achieving water security. Water Hackathon had four interim objectives: (i) creation of a network of atypical partners engaged in finding solutions to water-related challenges, (ii) preparation of a list of challenges facing the water sector, (iii) development of new applications designed to address these challenges, and (iv) adoption of new applications and codes in World Bank projects. The openness of the approach attracted considerable attention from within the water community and also from print and online media, including blogs and social networks, which traditionally do not feature water content. 'This was the new Egypt at work,' said one participant in Cairo. Water Hackathon offered a low-cost, high-reward opportunity to open up water sector challenges to the talent and creativity of the ICT design and development community. This approach also required a change in mindset for the World Bank, calling for greater openness, experimentation and tolerance of failure. -
Publication
Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment of Oil and Gas Development in Mauritania
(Washington, DC, 2011-06)The objectives of this Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) are as follows: To identify the social and environmental impacts which could be generated by oil and gas development, evaluating the scope and probability of these impacts due to increased activities in the onshore and offshore; to put forward recommendations to avoid, manage and/or attenuate these impacts; to facilitate the integration of these measures into a coherent policy and to ensure its application; and to help in capacity building and training of Government officials in the management oil and gas sector impacts, in particular the Ministries of Environment and Petroleum, Energy and Mines. It is divided into two parts. Part A contains the project background; hydrocarbon potential trend scenarios; critical environmental and social risks; and key SESA findings. Part B contains background and supporting information used in development of the SESA: Description of methodology used in the SESA; legal, regulatory and institutional framework; development trends, onshore and offshore; environmental setting - onshore and offshore; social setting; and cultural and archaeological heritage. -
Publication
Climate-Resilient Development in Vietnam: Strategic Directions for the World Bank
(Washington, DC, 2011)Weather is the term used to describe the atmospheric conditions (heat, wetness, wind, etc.) prevailing at any one place and time. Climate is the sum of the prevailing weather conditions of a given place over a period of time, typically summed over many decades. This paper seeks to provide strategic directions for mainstreaming support for climate change within the World Bank's broader program of assistance to Vietnam. It does so by reviewing the current understanding of climate change in Vietnam and likely impacts, outlining principles to guide the Bank's engagement in this field, and applying these principles across a range of sectors, taking into account both near- and longer-term considerations. The report identifies elements of the Bank's current and planned portfolio of projects and analytical work that are contributing or will contribute to improved knowledge, planning, and actions, and it points to additional areas where new or more work seems warranted. The report represents a first iteration of a strategy for supporting Vietnam in managing the challenges posed by climate change. As more experience is gathered and as our understanding of both the science and the economics of climate change impacts in Vietnam improves, this strategy will need to be revisited and refined. While the process of climate change is expected to be a long-term phenomenon-with predictions for considerable changes through the second half of the twenty-first century, the focus of this report is on decisions and priorities that should govern the Bank's assistance during this decade. Given an array of uncertainties, extending the developing assistance planning vision much beyond 2020 is not practical. This time frame also corresponds to the government of Vietnam's own planning horizon. -
Publication
Making Transport Climate Resilient : Country Report Ethiopia
(Washington, DC, 2010-08)This report is the output of the World Bank-financed study on Making Trans-port Climate Resilient for Ethiopia, which is a Sub-Saharan Africa initiative to respond to the impact of climate changes on road transport.The climate scenarios The study is based on four climate scenarios selected by the World Bank to be consistent with the scenarios used in the study Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change. The scenarios span from a "global dry" future with lower temperatures and less rain than today to a "wet Ethiopia" future with more rain than today and an increase in heavy rain so that a 10- year storm in 2050 will be 25% more intensive than today. The foreseen increases in average temperatures range from -1 OC to 2 OC by 2050. -
Publication
Strategic Environmental Assessment : Improving Water Resources Governance and Decision Making
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-04)The overall goal of this report is to assist water resources and environment professionals within the Bank and client countries to use Strategic environmental assessment (SEAs) to effectively implement the principles of Integrated water resources management (IWRM). It (a) delineates environmental issues related IWRM; (b) identifies opportunities for SEAs to addressing these environmental issues; (c) uses the literature and ten Bank and non-Bank case studies to identify procedural and substantive factors and institutional drivers that lead to effective SEAs in the water sector at the policy, strategy, program, and plan levels; (d) reviews four national and state water policies to understand the inclusions of environment; (e) observes the introduction of SEAs in a developing country as an in-depth pilot study to identify practical issues arising from the introduction of SEAs for the water sector; and (f) recommends how the Bank can expand the use of SEAs to improve the integration of environmental issues in water resources investments.