Sibout Nooteboom
Technical sectretary
The NCEA and the West African Association for Environmental Assessment have produced a workshop report that draws conclusions from EIA Mappings of five countries in West Africa, with the help of Dr. Dieudonné Bitondo and Dr. Karim Samoura.
Significant details
The West African Association of Environmental Assessment ((http://aoaee-waaea.org/?-WAAEA-) organised a regional workshop to discuss strengths and weaknesses of EIA systems in Benin, Guinée Conakry, Mali, Niger and Togo. In 2011, these EIA systems have been analysed with support of the NCEA. In 2014, representatives of national associations of environmental assessment professionals from these countries plus representatives of their national environmental assessment agencies joined in Conakry to look for a joint agenda. The aim was to look for funding of a (francophone) West African joint approach to the improvement of national ESIA systems, among others to be able to better manage transboundary work. As the WAAEA and its national members did not succeed to find funding, there was no follow-up at west-african level. However, it marked the start of NCEA activities in several of these countries (notably those that were partner countries of The Netherlands: Bénin and Mali).