Overview Institutional capacity assessment is a key building block of a CEA. As part of the Environmental and Socially Sustainable Development learning week, a workshop on “CEAs and Institutional Assessments” was held on April 6,th 2005 to discuss different ways in which institutional assessments can be approached in the context of a particular country setting. Objectives The workshop had three main objectives-- to provide a basic understanding of key concepts and tools used in the context of institutional analysis, address links between EA capacity assessment and broader institutional analysis, and share approaches and methodologies being developed in the context of ongoing CEAs. Participants More than 40 colleagues from various bank sectors and regions, thematic and family groups attended the workshop. Participation by colleagues from various country offices significantly enriched the discussion. Approaches to Institutional Assessment in CEAs Need to tailor institutional analysis to country context and objective of CEA: An introductory presentation on CEAs and institutional assessment discussed various approaches to institutional analysis developed within and outside the Bank. The OECD’s Environment Performance Reviews for example, examine a country’s environmental performance on key environmental issues and use a peer review mechanism to press member countries to improve their performance. The emphasis here is on establishing baseline conditions, mapping environmental trends and indicators, rather than on uncovering the political economy of institutions. Other tools such as the Institutional and Governance Reviews used at the World Bank, put a much greater emphasis on assessing political economy issues and on links between formal and informal rules. The presentation highlighted the variation both between and within tools, and lack of a blueprint approach. A key point made during this discussion was that CEA is a tool for many purposes and that the approach to institutional assessment needs to be tailored to the country context, objective of the specific CEA being undertaken, budget and time frame and prior work already available in this area. Insights from Russia EA Assessment and broader review of Environmental Management in the country Embed EA capacity assessment in assessment of broader environmental management capacity of a country: By way of understanding links between EA capacity assessment and broader country level assessment of institutional capacity, two case studies from Russia were presented. The Russia EA study sought to evaluate the capacity of Russia’s EA System. Its objective was to assess “on-the-ground’ performance of the country’s EA system with the intention of developing a generic assessment framework that could eventually be used for cross-country comparison. The framework included five aspects of EA capacity—context, legal and regulatory framework, effectiveness, impact and institutional capacity. An assessment tool comprising of lead questions, benchmarks, a numeric scoring system and a checklist of detailed questions was developed for each of these elements. Checklists helped make transparent how the assessment was derived and thus helped discussion with counterparts. An important lesson from the study was that to adequately assess EA capacity, a broader assessment of the country’s environmental management capacity is needed. This was done in a follow up study that focused on assessing environmental management in Russia, more broadly. The main thrust of the latter study was to examine key environmental trends during 1997 - 2004, specifically focusing on four major regions of the country. Designing Institutional Assessment in India and Pakistan CEA Importance of consultative process for institutional analysis: Presentations on the India and Pakistan CEAs highlighted several common features in terms of process and methodology for doing institutional analysis. Both CEAs focus on specific priority areas. In the case of India, these included institutional analysis of major growth sectors including highway, power and industry. The Pakistan SCEA focuses on water and sanitation, urban air and EIA, while also undertaking a broad institutional analysis, and public expenditure review. Further, in both cases, the CEA teams undertook extensive consultation with government counterparts and key stakeholders to establish priority areas. The preparation of Pakistan CEA included (1) a stakeholder workshop with GoP, Provincial EPA’s, private sector, and NGO’s to identify key environmental areas of concern; (2) consultations with Ministry of Environment, Environmental Protection Agency, and Planning Commission to develop the concept note and terms of reference; (3) meeting with Finance Ministry to discuss linkage with PRSP and (4) establishment of key focal points to guide and coordinate with the Bank and consultants in SCEA implementation. In the case of India, the process included consultation with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, and all relevant sector agencies. Ownership was built through consultation on terms of references. A cross-sectoral streering committee has been set up to help coordination, guidance on methodology, process and outcome. While both CEAs were in relatively early stages of preparation at the time of the workshop, both highlighted the importance of a long term consultative process for undertaking and eventually implementing recommendations coming out of institutional capacity assessment undertaken as part of CEAs. |
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