Support to the Evaluation of Partnership for Environmental Assessment in Africa (PEAA), a donor partnership set up to provide support to Capacity Linkages for Environmental Assessment in Africa (CLEAA)

African governments have largely put Environmental Assessments and environmental management systems in place in policy and legislation, however to achieve effective systems, much capacity remains to be developed. This will involve institutional development as well as financial capacity and expertise. The African network Capacity Development and Linkages for Environmental Assessment in Africa (CLEAA) and its sub-regional nodes across Africa have taken upon themselves to promote sustainable development through capacity development within EA and other environmental management tools. CLEAA is the product of years of consultations and activities aimed at assisting capacity building in the application of environmental assessment in Africa. Funding for CLEAA efforts is still meagre.

In an attempt to facilitate and attract more donors, the WB initiated a partnership framework, Partnership for Environmental Assessment in Africa (PEAA) which was formed in 2007 and is a collaboration between donors, the CLEAA network and other partners. The CLEAA network is anchored and governed by its regional nodes, each an independently chartered organization with its own program of work implementing a common strategy (Environmental Assessment and Management Capacity Building Strategy for Africa).

The nodes are:

• The Eastern Africa Association for Impact Assessment (EAAIA)
• The West African Association for Environmental Assessment (WAAEA)
• The Indian Ocean Islands Association for Environmental Assessment (IOAEA)
• The Secretariat for Environmental Assessment in Central Africa (SEACA)
• The Southern African Institute for Environmental Assessment (SAIEA).

The Tunis International Centre for Environmental Technologies (CITET) currently supports the North Africa sub-region pending formal constitution of a North African node.

The objective of the PEAA is to “harmonize, scale up and raise the visibility of support for EA and environmental management capacity-building in Africa, and in particular of initiatives to strengthen CLEAA and its nodes,” with the goal that “African governments, regional organizations, civil society and the private sector will effectively use EA and other environmental management tools for sustainable development in Africa.”
The partners are the World Bank; the Swedish EIA Centre in its capacity as Sida’s External Expert Advice for Environmental Assessment; the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Africa, Office of Sustainable Development; the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment on behalf of The Royal Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation; the Capacity Development and Linkages for Environmental Assessment in Africa (CLEAA) network; and IAIA.

The Swedish EIA Centre (SEIAC) serves as a knowledge resource base on environmental assessment and environmental integration for the Swedish agency for Development Cooperation, Sida, and administers a programme for capacity development in environmental assessment in Sida partner countries. This has led to that SEIAC has become a founding member of PEAA with the objective to support such capacity development, including institutional development, through the support to CLEAA in Africa. SEIAC was committed to undertake an evaluation of its support to CLEAA through PEAA, and has agreed to substitute its evaluation to a broader cause. The evaluation was undertaken as an internal exercise with some consultant support from ORGUT.