Ineke Steinhauer
Technical secretary
The NCEA and the Netherlands Embassy in Bolivia received a request from the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA). Upon this request, the NCEA assisted INRA in 2012 in defining the scope and approach to undertake SEA. This resulted in an advice by the NCEA on a Terms of Reference (ToR) for the SEA.
Process and activities
INRA is a public decentralized technical institution, responsible for carrying out the agrarian/land reform process in Bolivia. It was also responsible for carrying out the Three Year Adjustment Plan for the New Plurinational State 2010-2012 – Environmental Agrarian Process, which was funded by the Netherlands Embassy in Bolivia. Compliance with the Embassy's Grant Agreement involved undertaking an SEA. INRA has requested technical assistance from the NCEA to be able to comply with this condition. The NCEA agreed to provide this assistance in the form of advice on a Terms of Reference for the SEA.
For this purpose, the NCEA composed a working group with two external experts, which visited the site in August 2012. Soon after this visit, a Final draft review advice and subsequently a Final review advice were issued (in October 2012).
Because of the limited time available for the SEA, the NCEA has chosen the following approach in its advice:
The SEA would therefore be able to give concrete recommendations for environmental mainstreaming within the INRA domain itself, while also giving recommendations for a more long term process to improve coordination and coherence. The latter could contribute to a favorable enabling environment to achieve more sustainable land use.
Results
INRA indicated that the SEA to which the NCEA contributed via its advice was a valuable input for INRA's next triannial plan. The effects of SEA however reached further: INRA also mentioned that it started an institutional reflection, encouraged INRA to discuss environmental issues and impacts, and led to a more open planning process. A more tangible result is the fact that an environmental specialist was added to INRA's team.