Strategic Environmental Assessment in Mali
Context
Mali has huge natural resources, diverse fauna and flora and particularly important ecosystems. However it has to face several environmental problems because of the increasing degradation of the environment. As for many African countries, these problems interact heavily with the demographic growth and the diminishing food resources; this associates the objectives of sustainable environment management with the objectives of reducing poverty. In this regard, and in the framework of the Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) Mali, the joint project of the United Nations (UNDP and UNEP) and the local government, two strategic environmental assessment studies are conducted in Mali in the sectors of public health and agriculture/breeding/fishing. The SEA studies were launched in December 2010 and will continue until June 2011.
Objectives
The general objective of the SEA studies is to identify, describe and assess the relations between environment and the sectors under study. They could lead to the implementation of programmes and projects monitored by the various concerned departments with the aim to improve the decision-making process at the political level and especially the integration of the environment in public policies. This mainly concerns:
- Developing a common vision of the environmental and social risks linked to these sectors through the analysis of the institutional, legislative and, regulatory frameworks.
- Encouraging the development of structures for discussions, consultations and cooperation among the stakeholders through the integration of issues concerning links between poverty and environment in the existing programmes and strategies.
- Analysing the technical and institutional capacities of structures (public, parastatal, associative, NGO, population, etc.) to correct weaknesses, face challenges related to a global programme of economic reflation especially in the sectors of water and rural development.
Beneficiaries
The first beneficiaries of the project are institutions, organisms and decision-makers seeking to monopolise resources and affecting decisions in this objective. Indirectly, the project will also benefit all the population of Mali by encouraging a better and more systematic consideration of the environment in economic and political decisions on the middle run.
Axes of the project
SEA Health Study
In the light of the designed methodology, the conducted analyses and the detected weaknesses, partners would propose a strategic decision-making plan according to the emergency of the impacts affecting the environment where the roles and responsibilities would be defined. General and specific recommendations are also formulated to this effect.
SEA Agriculture, Breeding and Fishing Study
Partners carry out a technical assessment to evaluate the extent of the integration of the environment in these sectors, define the major environmental issues at stake and propose a strategic plan to implement the necessary improvements.
Trainings and restitution workshops
During the project, partners propose and animate thematic trainings in SEA. They also organise a restitution workshop to present the results of two SEA studies as well as the final recommendations of the project.
Diploma of advanced studies en stratégie environnementale et enjeux économiques
