GUIDANCE FOR APPLYING SEA IN DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND SECTOR REFORM
63
These steps are not necessarily followed in a linear fashion. For example, sometimes the SEA process will begin with intensive stakeholder dialogue as a method for undertaking situation, stakeholder, and political economy analysis. In other cases, environmental priority setting will be undertaken in parallel with components of the institutional analysis. For example, in the WAMSSA national workshops, stakeholders combined selection of priorities with a discussion of enabling and blocking factors for addressing these priorities. The point is that there is no single “correct� way in which SEA should proceed. What is important is that the four steps outlined above are undertaken in some fashion. In what remains of this section, each step is briefly outlined; its objectives, the process to be followed in it, and its expected outcomes are all presented. Details of specific methods that can be applied at each step are contained in appendix C. Situation Assessment and Stakeholder Analysis SEA requires a reference scenario of the environmental and social situation in which policy and sector reform will take place. This scenario should assess key environmental and social issues (the situation assessment) that the SEA will focus on, and the key actors (the stakeholder analysis) that should be involved in the SEA process. Situation Assessment SEA at the policy level usually begins with an assessment of the key environmental and social issues currently affecting the sector to be reformed. Objectives The objective of situation assessment is to account for the key environmental and social issues prevailing in a region, or associated with a sector, so as to inform deliberations on priorities by stakeholders. Most policy SEA views situation assessment as a process that provides an overview of the sector or geographic area that is the subject of the SEA, highlighting key environmental and social issues.1 Process to Be Followed Situation assessment does not need to be as detailed as a baseline study. It should be based mainly on information from secondary sources and expert opinion. The depth of the assessment depends on the issues identified and the expected information requirements of the audience. For example, in WAMSSA the situation analysis focused on the notion of three potential mining infrastructure clusters (see box 3.3). Because the clusters affected at least two countries, the situation assessment attempted to make a detailed case for the efficiency of a multicountry approach for mining development. However, key economic and financial information for making a strong case was not available.