C H A P T E R
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The World Bank’s Pilot Program on SEA
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION CONTINUES to be a consistent concern around the world. In addition, converging challenges associated with surging food prices, global climate change, and species extinction have made it clear that current economic development trends are unsustainable. The predominant approach to dealing with environmental and climate change problems has been to treat them as unwanted side effects of economic development. This approach has worked to some extent where it has been possible to effectively regulate commercial and domestic activities. However, in most developing countries, administrative infrastructure has not been able to keep pace with economic activity, and so ecosystems are suffering. There is growing recognition that for sustainability goals to be reached, efforts need to go beyond complying with standards and mitigating adverse impacts, to gradually decoupling environmental degradation from economic growth. This effort requires mainstreaming environmental, sustainability, and climate change In 2005, the World Bank established the Pilot Program on Institution-Centered SEA (I-SEA) to test a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) approach centered on institutions and governance rather than on impact assessment. As the pilots were evaluated, it became clear that many of the observations and conclusions derived from the six pilot studies were applicable to SEA of policy and sector reform. Consequently, the terms “SEA at the policy level,” “policy SEA,” and “I-SEA” are used interchangeably in this report. 9