Presentations

Mainstreaming Integrated Coastal Management into Key Sectors in the Bank's Work

On March 11-14, 2003 the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (ESSD) Network of the World Bank hosted the ESSD Week 2003 learning event. One of the sessions was devoted to Coastal and Marine Management. The main focus was on the key ingredients for success, challenges and implications and recommendations for future Bank operations in the field of coastal and marine management. Links to the four session presentations are provided on the right.

The session focused on the unique challenges associated with supporting environmentally sustainable development in coastal areas. In this, it came as a direct continuation of the discussions over the last three days on the importance of mainstreaming and bridging across sectors in approaching the MDG implementation. Participants confronted some sobering facts with wide-ranging implications for the Bank's medium-to-long term work:

• By 2030, 60% of the world's population will be living in urban areas, most of these coastal.
• Already by 2015, ¾ of the world's mega-cities will be on the coast, capturing a significant portion of the above projections.
• These 60% of the world's population will live effectively "downstream" of major riverbasin development and at ground zero re: coastal development and climate change/sea level rise-related impacts. This location of coastal/urban populations at the interface of land and water, where the impacts of economic and population growth converge with natural and anthropogenic environmental impacts , puts them at the forefront of the development challenge of the next thirty years.
• The Bank's portfolio includes nearly $1 billion in coastal and marine activities between 1997 and the present (including the pipeline). Most of these projects are in the environment, biodiversity and water-related sectors.
• While the Bank has been at the forefront of developing the foundational work for ICM (e.g., in capacity building, and institutional strengthening), there has also been a notable disconnect with mainstreaming ICM into sectoral operations.
• With the renewed emphasis on infrastructure investments, and the water and sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals, significant opportunities exist to integrate the coastal dimension into these sectors.

At the same time, it was recognized that full-scale application of ICM involves a rather sophisticated process requiring the mobilization of multiple actors, strong political will, and substantial long-term resource commitment. While a limited number of our clients have embarked on such initiatives or are in a position to do so, for the majority of the Bank's clients as well as in crisis cases (such as urban and health crises) mainstreaming becomes imperative.

The session then went on to identify urban development, infrastructure, water supply and sanitation, energy, and health, as priority areas for incorporating the coastal dimension up-stream and advancing the application of the ICM principles in Bank operations. Importantly, the discussion highlighted the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) potential as a valuable tool for mainstreaming ICM in program and project design.