Workshop on Strategic Environmental Assessment opens

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the National Development Planning Commission has organised an international workshop on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) tools for stakeholders.

Madam Christine O. Asare, Director of Strategic Environmental Assessment Unit at the EPA, explained that SEA is a systematic process through which a holistic understanding of the environmental and social implications of a proposed policy, plan and programmes, could be attained.

The five- day workshop which starts from August 19 to August 23 is being attended by EPA personnel from Ghana and Sierra Leone and aims at building their capacities in SEA tools.

The objectives of the SEA are to achieve environmental protection and sustainable development and to educate decision-makers on the environmental impact of their decisions.

She said in the last decade the world has witnessed a rapid evolution of the environmental policy agenda while traditional environmental decision-making is being questioned, because it has not efficiently responded to the new challenges of the 21st century, as confirmed by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992.

Madam Asare said the workshop would equip participants on the application of SEA in the development planning process at the national, regional and district levels as well as provide tools to conduct SEA of policies and programmes.

She said the workshop would provide a platform for the participants to be trained on how environmental integration could be incorporated in policies, plans and programmes.

Madam Asare said the participants would also be introduced on how the SEA could be used in development planning to enable the country achieve sustainable growth and reduce poverty.

Source: GNA