86 STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT IN POLICY AND SECTOR REFORM
and implementation of policy and sector reform. In different ways and to differing extents, the pilots contributed to raising attention to environmental and social priorities, strengthening environmental constituencies, and enriching policy learning. The evaluation also found that the pilots contributed to the expansion of policy capacities, the broadening of policy horizons, and the modification of decision regimes. By influencing these three underlying conditions of policy making, SEA can enable long-term changes in actual formulation and implementation of sector reform. Specific tools that assist in reaching these outcomes already exist, and were presented as guidance in chapter 3. Taking account of environmental concerns in sector reform requires a different emphasis for SEA, and draws upon the use of specific tools grounded in economics, political science, sociology, and adaptive decision making. It is important to note that experiences with environmental mainstreaming in the World Bank’s SEA pilot program have led to conclusions similar to those reached by other researchers, both in the context of development cooperation and in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy processes.1 In addition, it was found that ownership, capacity, and trust are necessary conditions for effective environmental mainstreaming at the policy level. Strong evidence was found that SEA has positive outcomes only if it promotes ownership of the SEA process by governments, civil society organizations, and local communities. The evaluation confirmed that country ownership has several dimensions. There is government ownership, which involves both a mandate to control the reform, including SEA, and accountability for results. When national agencies are put in charge of designing sustainable policies, they are equipped to deliver much more powerful measures than those that the World Bank or other agencies would be able to induce. It is important to note, however, that when weak sector ministries take ownership of policy SEA, there is a risk of regulatory capture and associated rent seeking. The West Africa Minerals Sector Strategic Assessment (WAMSSA) pilot showed that institutions such as multistakeholder frameworks can guard against this eventuality. Another dimension of ownership is linked to civil society and to potentially affected stakeholders. With well-designed institutional support and multistakeholder frameworks for addressing policy and development decisions in sector reform, SEA can help to reconcile different interests and to discourage regulatory capture by enhancing transparency and social accountability. Effective environmental mainstreaming requires capacities to engage in dissemination, assimilation, and interpretation of knowledge; in strategic thinking; and in interactions with different stakeholders. These tasks take time and require qualified staff. Presently, day-to-day affairs often absorb existing staff capacities.