This workshop, organized by the Environmental Economics Helpdesk at EEU, in Gothenburg, Sweden, October 27-28 2008, was held to reflect on the role of institutions and political economy in policy level environmental assessment in a developing country perspective.
Specialists in policy analysis, evaluation and strategic environmental assessment from several countries participated, for instance Kulsum Ahmed and Fernando Loayza, World Bank, Maria Partidario, University of Lisbon, Neil Bird and John Young, Overseas Development Institute, Rob Verheem, Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment and Sibout Nooteboom, Erasmus University, and Måns Nilsson, Stockholm Environment Institute. One specific objective of the workshop was to discuss a first draft of a literature review on Institutions Centered Strategic Environmental Assessment. It has been initiated to guide an evaluation (in 2009) of a pilot program that the World Bank has launched as as part of an institutions-centered approach to SEA. In the pilot program institutions centered SEAs are applied to reform processes in a variety of different sectors (forestry, mining, transport and urban development) and countries (Kenya, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China). Read the full Workshop Program (pdf) The Environmental Economics Helpdesk at EEU, University of Gothenburg, collaborates closely with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, with the overarching goal to support integration of strategic environmental concerns into Swedish development cooperation.
