Publication: Public Consultation in Environmental Assessment : Lessons from East and South Asia
Loading...
Date
1997-04
ISSN
Published
1997-04
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Consultation is a two-way communication process by which the knowledge and views of affected peoples, NGOs, the private sector and other interested parties are taken into account in development decision-making. In the case of EAs, the assumption is often made that such involvement is not necessary because of the often complex and highly technical nature of environmental impacts. Nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly clear that the knowledge of affected communities and NGOs can contribute to the quality of EAs, as well as provide a better understanding of the social impacts which accompany development interventions. The Bank and other development agencies have learned that if public consultation does not take place early in the project preparation process, it often leads to public misunderstandings, and unnecessary delays in project processing and implementation. The Bank's Operational Directive on EA (OD 4.01) distinguishes between various types of projects based upon the potential significance of their environmental impacts. Category A projects are usually large (e.g., hydro- dams, roads, urban infrastructural projects, industrial facilities, etc.) and have widespread environmental and social impacts, including in some cases involuntary resettlement and effects on vulnerable populations such as indigenous peoples.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 1997. Public Consultation in Environmental Assessment : Lessons from East and South Asia. Social Development Notes; No. 30. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11592 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Public Consultation in Environmental Assessments 1997-2000 : Findings from the Third Environmental Assessment Review(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-06)According to internal and external reviews of the public consultation process, public consultations have increasingly become a standard part of the environmental assessment process in Bank operations. However, the current challenge for Bank operations focuses on the quality of public consultations and the extent to which they influence project design and effect project impact. In an attempt to evaluate how projects were meeting this challenge, the Third Review assessed whether qualitative and quantitative improvements in EA public consultations had taken place for Category A and B Bank-financed projects (A project is classified as Category A if it is "likely to have significant adverse environmental impacts that are sensitive, diverse or unprecedented." On the other hand, a project is classified as Category B if it will not have significantly adverse impacts on human populations or environmentally important areas including wetlands, forests, grasslands, and other natural habitats.) In order to provide guidance for improving public consultation in future EA processes, the review also identified challenges and best practices, and briefly examined whether these improvements were similarly reflected in the work of financial intermediaries and regional and sectoral environmental assessments (SEAs).Publication How, When and Why to Use Demand-Side Governance Approaches in Projects(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012)This note offers a process-oriented guide to strengthening demand-side governance approaches in World Bank projects with a step-by-step approach for determining how demand for good governance (DFGG) tools and approaches can be applied to different types of Bank-funded projects. The objective of this note is to help task teams anticipate demand-side governance considerations early in the project preparation process, identify potential entry points for introducing DFGG tools to address these considerations, provide guidance on selecting DFGG tools which will improve governance, transparency and service delivery, assist borrowers to introduce DFGG tools in Bank projects, and to measure their impact. The core guidance is presented in the form of a simple five-step process for determining activity in a given project context. The annexes contain a glossary of DFGG tools, checklists, website links and other resources for task teams that will assist them in introducing and deepening DFGG work in Bank projects.Publication Strategic Framework for Mainstreaming Citizen Engagement in World Bank Group Operations(Washington, DC, 2014)The objective of this strategic framework is to mainstream citizen engagement in World Bank Group (WBG)-supported policies, programs, projects, and advisory services and analytics to improve their development results and within the scope of these operations, contribute to building sustainable national systems for citizen engagement with governments and the private sector. This framework will capture the diverse experiences, assess lessons learned, and outline methods and entry points to provide a more systematic and results-focused approach for the WBG. Progress toward this objective will be assessed using indicators included in program, project, and corporate results frameworks. The WBG strategy incorporates citizen engagement, including beneficiary feedback, specifically in its treatment of inclusion, which entails empowering citizens to participate in the development process and integrating citizen voice in development programs as key accelerators to achieving results. This framework builds on stocktaking and lessons learned from WBG-financed operations across regions and sectors. A key lesson is the importance of country context, government ownership, and clear objectives for citizen engagement. The approach to mainstreaming citizen engagement in WBG-supported operations is guided by five principles: 1) it is results-focused; 2) it involves engaging throughout the operational cycle; 3) it seeks to strengthen country systems; 4) it is context-specific; and 5) it is gradual. Under the right circumstances, citizen engagement can contribute to achieving development outcomes in support of the goals the WBG aims to support through all of the operations it funds: eradicating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner.Publication Participatory Conservation for Protected Areas : An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Sources (1996-2001)(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-01)This report provides annotated summaries of recent publications on participatory conservation for protected areas. The report focused on lessons learned and good practices for donor-funded projects. The summaries include study objectives, methodology and findings. A keyword search list is also available at the end of the report.Publication Training for Social Development Staff at the World Bank, Volume 2. Annexes(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-10)The social development family is facing a major challenge given the significant increase in lending made by the Bank in the last five years. Lending overall has more than doubled between FY05 and FY09; investment lending has increased by 82 percent and infrastructure lending by 125 percent. In this report, International Evaluation Group (IEG) suggests that the World Bank's safeguard policies are 'unbalanced' and narrowly conceived even in comparison to other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). The report challenges the Bank to consolidate and update its social policies. The purpose of this paper is to present a concept note on core training and accreditation program on social sustainability and social safeguards to Bank staff, including a comprehensive proposal of the training and program, main objectives, content and scope of the course (social sustainability, social analysis social assessment, demand for good governance, youth, gender, 'fragility, conflict, crime and violence', social impacts of climate change, community driven development, social safeguard policies-involuntary resettlement, indigenous peoples, cultural property) target audiences, duration and methodologies according to the audiences, and estimated budget.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Making Procurement Work Better – An Evaluation of the World Bank’s Procurement System(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-06)This evaluation assesses the results, successes, and challenges of the World Bank 2016 procurement reform. Procurements acquire the works, goods, and services necessary to achieve the World Bank’s project development outcomes. The World Bank’s procurement processes must ensure that clients get the best value for every development dollar. In 2016, the World Bank reformed its procurement system for Investment Project Financing and launched a new procurement framework aimed at enhancing the Bank’s development effectiveness through better procurement. The reform sought to reduce procurement bottlenecks impeding project performance and modernize procurement systems. It emphasized cutting edge international good practice principles and was intended to be accompanied by procurement capacity strengthening to help client countries. This evaluation offers three recommendations to scale up reform implementation and enhance portfolio and project performance: (i) Improve change management support for the reform’s implementation. (ii) Strategically strengthen country-level procurement capacity. (iii) Consistently manage the full spectrum of procurement risks to maximize project success.Publication Remarks at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-12)World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed biodiversity and climate change being closely interlinked, with terrestrial and marine ecosystems serving as critically important carbon sinks. At the same time climate change acts as a direct driver of biodiversity and ecosystem services loss. The World Bank has financed biodiversity conservation around the world, including over 116 million hectares of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas, 10 million hectares of Terrestrial Protected Areas, and over 300 protected habitats, biological buffer zones and reserves. The COVID pandemic, biodiversity loss, climate change are all reminders of how connected we are. The recovery from this pandemic is an opportunity to put in place more effective policies, institutions, and resources to address biodiversity loss.Publication Economic Recovery(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-06)World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the world facing major challenges, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality and growing fragility and violence in many countries. He highlighted vaccines, working closely with Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF, the World Bank has conducted over one hundred capacity assessments, many even more before vaccines were available. The World Bank Group worked to achieve a debt service suspension initiative and increased transparency in debt contracts at developing countries. The World Bank Group is finalizing a new climate change action plan, which includes a big step up in financing, building on their record climate financing over the past two years. He noted big challenges to bring all together to achieve GRID: green, resilient, and inclusive development. Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, mentioned focusing on vulnerable people during the pandemic. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, focused on giving everyone a fair shot during a sustainable recovery. All three commented on the importance of tackling climate change.Publication South Asia Development Update, April 2024: Jobs for Resilience(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-02)South Asia is expected to continue to be the fastest-growing emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) region over the next two years. This is largely thanks to robust growth in India, but growth is also expected to pick up in most other South Asian economies. However, growth in the near-term is more reliant on the public sector than elsewhere, whereas private investment, in particular, continues to be weak. Efforts to rein in elevated debt, borrowing costs, and fiscal deficits may eventually weigh on growth and limit governments' ability to respond to increasingly frequent climate shocks. Yet, the provision of public goods is among the most effective strategies for climate adaptation. This is especially the case for households and farms, which tend to rely on shifting their efforts to non-agricultural jobs. These strategies are less effective forms of climate adaptation, in part because opportunities to move out of agriculture are limited by the region’s below-average employment ratios in the non-agricultural sector and for women. Because employment growth is falling short of working-age population growth, the region fails to fully capitalize on its demographic dividend. Vibrant, competitive firms are key to unlocking the demographic dividend, robust private investment, and workers’ ability to move out of agriculture. A range of policies could spur firm growth, including improved business climates and institutions, the removal of financial sector restrictions, and greater openness to trade and capital flows.Publication Media and Messages for Nutrition and Health(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the past decade. However, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern. Rates of childhood undernutrition are particularly high in remote, rural, and upland areas. Media have the potential to play an important role in shaping health and nutrition–related behaviors and practices as well as in promoting sociocultural and economic development that might contribute to improved nutritional outcomes. This report presents the results of a media audit (MA) that was conducted to inform the development and production of mass media advocacy and communication strategies and materials with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition that would reach the most people from the poorest communities in northern Lao PDR. Making more people aware of useful information, essential services and products and influencing them to use these effectively is the ultimate goal of mass media campaigns, and the MA measures the potential effectiveness of media efforts to reach this goal. The effectiveness of communication channels to deliver health and nutrition messages to target beneficiaries to ensure maximum reach and uptake can be viewed in terms of preferences, satisfaction, and trust. Overall, the four most accessed media channels for receiving information among communities in the study areas were village announcements, mobile phones, television, and out-of-home (OOH) media. Of the accessed media channels, the top three most preferred channels were village announcements (40 percent), television (26 percent), and mobile phones (19 percent). In terms of trust, village announcements were the most trusted source of information (64 percent), followed by mobile phones (14 percent) and television (11 percent). Hence of all the media channels, village announcements are the most preferred, have the most satisfied users, and are the most trusted source of information in study communities from four provinces in Lao PDR with some of the highest burden of childhood undernutrition.