Institutional Capacity for Environmental and Social Safeguards Management

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 467.

An assessment of environmental and social safeguard management capacities in a sample of municipalities has revealed that municipalities have limited organizational capacity to manage environmental and social safeguards under the OBA project. There are two key institutional issues:

· Lack of single point responsibility/ accountability for environmental and social issues related to the OBA: While environmental and social concerns in the context of the OBA project could arguably be under the purview of the Environment & Sanitation and Social Welfare sections, in practice, these sections have minimal staff without the necessary qualifications. Further aspects such as aspects such as occupational health and safety of waste-pickers and developing the capacity of recyclers are not considered to be a priority;

· Limited organisational capacity in terms of staffing levels and qualifications, as well as physical recording and reporting systems for SWM.

A critical review of the SWM strategic plans prepared by two of the participating municipalities (Tansen and Dhankuta) shows that the municipalities largely acknowledge the above institutional issues, and have set out strategic objectives and corresponding activities at a very broad level to address them. These municipalities (and others intending to participate in the project) will be required to include in their SWM-SIPs certain actions to strengthen management capacity for the OBA Project including environmental and social safeguards management. To support project implementation, the Participating Municipalities shall:

· Form a relevant subject committee of the municipal council (the SWM Committee) and include in its job description (ToR) the environmental and social safeguards obligations of the municipality under the OBA project

· Establish a Dedicated SWM Unit and give it a job description (ToR) which encompasses the environmental and social safeguards obligations under the OBA project.

· Each participating municipality will have Environmental and Social Officer,

Other key institutional strengthening activities agreed, and which form part of the performance/technical scorecard for each participating municipality are outline in the Project Operations Manual.

It should be noted that 3 out of the 5 municipalities in the initial pipeline are also participants in the on-going UGDP/ETP project, and as such will be benefit from additional safeguards training and expertise provided under the project.

At the central level, TDF shall be responsible for the overall monitoring of safeguards management. TDF is already implementing the socio-economic infrastructure component of the UGDP/ETP project, and monitoring the associated social and environmental safeguards issues.

TDF will be supported by SWMTSC in its capacity as the lead technical agency on solid waste management in Nepal. SWMTSC will also provide training and technical support to the municipalities. The SWMTSC has Environmental and Social Specialists to support/strengthen municipalities' capacity for safeguards management. SWMTSC will augment its expertise by recruiting additional environmental, solid waste and social experts as consultants or technical support providers under the project.

In addition, the technical support component of the project (component 2) will support capacity building measures for enhancing implementation capacity for environmental safeguards management, both at the center and municipality level. In addition, UGDP/ETP municipalities will benefit from safeguards training and implementation support provided under the project.

In terms of enabling legislation, the Solid Waste Management Act 2011, Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1997 and Environmental Protection Regulation (EPR) 1997, provide a basic framework for addressing the environmental issues under the project. Other national guidelines relevant to the OBA project include:

· SWMRMC - Initial Environmental Examination (IEE).Format for Solid Waste Management Facilities in the municipalities of Nepal;

· SWMRMC - National Environmental Impact Assessment (NEIA). Guidelines for Solid Waste Management Project in the municipalities of Nepal; and

· Solid Waste Management Technical Guidelines for Municipalities of Nepal

The above Acts and guidelines provide an enabling legal framework and technical guidance for addressing the environmental and social issues and management practices. A brief description of the Nepalese Acts and guidelines relevant to the OBA project is given in the project Operations Manual.