Story | 31 Oct, 2016

Effectiveness of development planning assistance: Consultation on the use of Integrated Strategic Environment Assessment for the Northern Province of Sri Lanka

Immediately after the ending of the conflict, in 2009, UNDP and UNEP extended support to the Central Environment Authority (CEA) and the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) to conduct the “Integrated Strategic Environment Assessment for the Northern Province (ISEA-North).”

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ISEA-N

Photo: Dr Ananda Mallawatantri, IUCN Sri Lanka

The ISEA-N was conducted from November 2009 to April 2011 in the five districts of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka: Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaitivu and Vauvniya. The purpose of ISEA was to ensure the sustainability and resilience of the Northern Region development.  ISEA-North adopted a multi-agency, post-conflict, data driven consultative process (https://db.tt/WQ8FmNvf).  Implementation and adoption of ISEA have been exceptional in some sectors and recorded room for improvement in several aspects.

In mid 2016, IUCN Sri Lanka and UNEP started documenting the ISEA-North process and implementation experience.  Following this,  a consultative session was held on 22 of September 2016 at the Lakshman Kadiragamar Institute, Colombo 7 aiming to bring together key stakeholders and high level Govt. officials from central, provincial and district levels and representatives of the development community.

Explaining the ISEA process in detail, Prof. Buddhi Marambe, Team Leader of ISEA-N said that ISEA is an advanced version of Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) process involving data integration and stakeholder consultation. This assessment which was carried out with the participation of 40 National agencies/departments and two international agencies provided two solutions: Solution 1- providing conservation areas and Solution 2- a phase out plan – identifying land area for development.

Experience in implementation was shared by Dr Ananda Mallawatantri, Country Representative, IUCN Sri Lanka and former UNDP Programme Manager on ISEA-N.   

The dialogue which followed brought out valuable recommendations mainly from those representing the North of Sri Lanka to take note of by the representatives of the relevant government departments.   

The event was attended by 44 participants representing the UNDP, UNEP, Central Environmental Authority, Disaster Management Centre, Jaffna District Secretariat, Jaffna Provincial Council, Key government agencies such as the Forest Department, Department of Wildlife Conservation, academia, NGOs and media. UNDP and UNEP representatives also addressed the gathering highlighting the success of this venture.

During the consultation a number of current issues on land use management and the need to build the capacity of the district planning units have been highlighted.

IUCN will be compiling the final report by end of 2016.