This book presents the findings and recommendations of the evaluation of the World Bank's Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Pilot Program. It shows that SEA can contribute to improving development policy and sector reform by calling attention to environmental and social priorities, strengthening constituencies, enhancing policy capacities, and improving social accountability. It also provides guidance for undertaking SEA in policy and sector reform. Although it acknowledges the need for tailoring SEA to the context of specific sectors and countries, the book discusses in detail and illustrates with examples the analytical work and participatory processes required for effective SEA at the policy level. It suggests that the time is ripe for scaling up SEA in development policy and sector reform and recommends the establishment of a global alliance on environmental and climate change mainstreaming to support developing countries efforts for achieving sustainable development. The book concludes by arguing that SEA applied to sector reform and development policy is a critical step for these efforts to be successful. This title responds to demand for SEA approaches at the policy level from policymakers, development and environmental specialists of bilateral and multilateral institutions, and environmental assessment specialists. This publication is the result of joint work by the Environment Department of the World Bank, the Environmental Economics Unit at the Department of Economics of the University of Gothenburg (EEU), the Swedish EIA Centre at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA.) In line with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the book also contributes to harmonization of SEA approaches by the donor community that is led by the SEA Task Team of the OECD Development Assistance Committee.

Environmentally and socially sustainable policies are essential for good governance. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is the key tool for integrating environmental considerations into policies, programs and plans. This book focuses on SEA applied to policies. Through lessons learned from previous use of SEA on policies, it draws lessons on the strengths and weaknesses of current SEA methodology. It then goes on to analyze how policies are formulated and implemented and proposes a new conceptual framework for conducting SEA of policies thatpotentially could be more useful in influencing decision makers to integrate environmental sustainability considerations into policy formulation and implementation.

This book presents the findings and recommendations of the evaluation of the World Bank's Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Pilot Program. It shows that SEA can contribute to improving development policy and sector reform by calling attention to environmental and social priorities, strengthening constituencies, enhancing policy capacities, and improving social accountability. It also provides guidance for undertaking SEA in policy and sector reform. Although it acknowledges the need for tailoring SEA to the context of specific sectors and countries, the book discusses in detail--and illustrates with examples--the analytical work and participatory processes required for effective SEA at the policy level. It suggests that the time is ripe for scaling up SEA in development policy and sector reform and recommends the establishment of a global alliance on environmental and climate change mainstreaming to support developing countries' efforts for achieving sustainable development. The book concludes by arguing that SEA applied to sector reform and development policy is a critical step for these efforts to be successful. This title responds to demand for SEA approaches at the policy level from policymakers, development and environmental specialists of bilateral and multilateral institutions, and environmental assessment specialists. This publication is the result of joint work by the Environment Department of the World Bank, the Environmental Economics Unit at the Department of Economics of the University of Gothenburg (EEU), the Swedish EIA Centre at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA.) In line with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the book also contributes to harmonization of SEA approaches by the donor community that is led by the SEA Task Team of the OECD Development Assistance Committee.

This book identifies reforms that can help manage environmental priority problems associated with transport’s impacts on air quality, noise pollution, road safety, hazardous-materials transport, climate change, and urban sprawl. The policy options are contextualized in light of the Government of Pakistan’s 2011 Framework for Economic Growth and its strategic objectives. Appendixes A–D present additional background information, describe the economic and institutional analyses undergirding this report, and detail the report’s methodology. This analytical work by a team of World Bank specialists focuses on: • analyzing the policy and institutional adjustments required to address environmental, social, and poverty aspects of increased transportation efficiency in Pakistan; • identifying policy options for the Government of Pakistan to better serve the population, to enhance social cohesion, and to foster equitable benefit sharing with low-income or other vulnerable groups; • developing a broad participatory process to give a voice to stakeholders who could be affected by enhancements of freight transport productivity; and • making robust recommendations to strengthen governance and the institutional capacity of agencies to manage the environmental, social, and poverty consequences of freight transportation infrastructure.

This book brings together the latest thinking in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and considers the key question of whether the processes are having a positive impact on strategic decision making, both in Europe and worldwide. As governments move to develop green agendas, the book explores the challenges of working within national systems, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of sector-specific SEA. The importance of stakeholder engagement is considered, as is the question of how to turn NIMBYs into WIMBYs – that is, creating positive reasons to encourage development and allow local stakeholders to profit. In assessing ways in which the practice of SEA can provide a new agenda for the 21st Century, the chapters explore current and emerging approaches, procedures and methods, along with ways in which SEA can be linked with other planning tools. The role of research and academia is considered, and the book looks beyond the current status of SEA to address the question of how practitioners can capitalise on the potential of SEA to become integrated into high-level policy as a key element of climate change mitigation strategies. Each chapter is written by internationally renowned authors and based on many years of experience in the field. The book will be essential reading for forward-thinking practitioners and students of SEA.

Currently the writing on the subject is limited and comprises, for the most part, guidance documents and completed assessments.

This practical guide on how to carry out strategic environmental assessment (SEA) presents a coherent 'how to do it' approach for the practitioner. It is the first publication to take account of the requirements of the European Union Directive 2001/42/EC - known as the 'SEA Directive' - and the UNECE Protocol on SEA.Part I provides an overview of the aims, principles, advantages and problems of SEA as well as looking at the SEA Directive and its requirements. Part II examines the SEA process in considerable detail including setting the context, describing the baseline, identifying alternatives, predicting and evaluating impacts and using the SEA information in monitoring and decision-making. Part III is devoted to assuring SEA quality with a discussion of resources and capacity building.Employing real-life case studies, each chapter presents a range of techniques and discusses what the final product should look like. Appendices provide a wealth of additional information including text of the SEA Directive and the UNECE Protocol on SEA, and a 'toolkit' of SEA techniques.The approach and techniques in Strategic Environmental Assessment in Action are useful for anyone carrying out SEA at any level from policy to programme, international to local, but particularly for practitioners responsible for implementing the SEA Directive.