With the world facing the triple crises of biodiversity loss, climate change and social inequity, ESIA has a critical role to play in evaluating and shaping the contribution of proposed projects to sustainable development, by addressing these three major challenges. Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) helps proponents and stakeholders operationalise the mitigation hierarchy, i.e., to avoid and minimise negative impacts on the environment and people, to ensure that damage caused by development is repaired through restoration of affected biodiversity, and that remaining harm is compensated or offset.
Uganda last updated and published Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment in 1997. Since then, however, several legal and institutional reforms have occurred not only nationally but also globally. Further, the science and art of environmental management, including impact prediction, assessment and management has evolved considerably, and stakeholders’ awareness of environmental and social issues has increased.
To improve the execution of Environment and Social Impact Assessments, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) through the 2nd phase of the AFD-funded Conservation Mitigation and Biodiversity Offsets (COMBO+) is offering financial and technical support to the Government of Uganda through the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to review and update Uganda’s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) Guidelines.
Following the competitive selection of Atacama Consulting, a local Environmental and Social Consultancy to lead with the activity, an inception workshop was held officially to kickstart the review and updating of Uganda’s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Guidelines.
The event was attended by forty-three participants representing officials from institutions within the Government of Uganda (NEMA, ERA, UWA, MWE, MoWT), academia, and the private sector, including impact assessment practitioners. The event was also graced by Dr Akankwasah Barirega, the Executive Director of the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA); Dr Simon T Nampindo, WCS-Uganda Country Program Director; and Ms Aya Elwattar who represented the AFD – Uganda Country Director.
All speakers emphasised the timeliness of this undertaking and called upon the consulting team to work closely with the selected members of the Core Working Group and other stakeholders to produce an all-encompassing and technically sound guideline. Participants also noted that the guideline should be easy to use by multiple stakeholder groups yet robust and progressive.
Photos: 1. Mr Edgar Mugisha, Lead Consultant - Atacama Consulting; Ms Monica Seruma, Lead - Environmental and Social Safeguards - Ministry of Works and Transport; and Mr Robert Ndyabarema, Former President - Uganda Association of Impact Assessors
2. Participants at the inception meeting
3. Ms Aya Elwattar, Agence Française de Développement (AFD)