Practices: Environment
Biodiversity loss and natural resources degradation threaten our quality of life and the health of millions of people.
Environmental degradation reaches across borders, affecting the quality of the regional and global commons and further increases the vulnerability of people to natural disasters. Its cumulative impact threatens the basis for growth and livelihoods today and in the future. Biodiversity loss and natural resources degradation - depleted soils, insufficient and poor quality water, rapidly disappearing forests- threaten our quality of life and the health of millions of people. Pollution continues to present a major health threat.
SI takes an integrated approach to the environment and natural resource management (NRM) with the understanding that collective action, proper incentives and trans-boundary approaches are required to encourage states, communities and corporations to manage natural resources in a sustainable way. Our services support and strengthen organizations working on the cutting edge of global natural resource management.
Range of Services
- Environmental Project and Program Design-facilitating participatory, results-oriented and gender-balanced planning to ensure sustainable resource management.
- Strengthening of Environmental Organizations-building the core capacities of environmental organizations to design, deliver and sustain stronger NRM programs.
- Performance Monitoring and Evaluation-designing and implementing practical M&E systems and conducting evaluations to improve the performance of NRM programs.
- PROJECT details
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El Salvador Watershed Management Project: USAID, 2006-2008
Improved Management and Conservation of Critical Watersheds is the cornerstone of USAID efforts to promote improved management of natural resources, improve the lives of local residents, and conserve biodiversity within two major Salvadoran watersheds, Barra de Santiago and Rio Grande de Sonsonate. The objective of the DAI-implemented project is to support the effective management of selected areas of high biodiversity importance while promoting responsible economic growth. Interventions focus on the conservation and managed use of biodiversity, water, forests, and other natural resources contained within activity areas. SI supports the DAI team to ensure that the project takes a "gender-balanced" approach to deliver benefits to both men and women and to look at the separate roles that women and men play in biodiversity conservation. SI also provides technical assistance to ensure that the project monitoring and evaluation system provides timely and accurate information for management decision-making and demonstrating results to USAID and other stakeholders.
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Amazon Basin Conservation Initiative: USAID, 2006-2010
In the Amazon Basin, a growing array of threats to biodiversity is crossing borders and verges on irreparable damage to the Basin's resources. Conflicting priorities and historic, linguistic, and cultural barriers have blocked regional cooperation efforts in the past. Growing awareness of the role that natural resources play in sound development, as well as increased political will to engage these issues, provide a strategic opportunity to address this array of threats.
To build local capacity to tackle these challenges, move toward long-term sustainability, and foster collaboration among stakeholders, USAID has designed its Amazon Basin Conservation Initiative (ABCI), one of the first truly cross-regional conservation programs, with sub-Basin partner consortia implementing diverse projects that will cooperatively address conservation threats and capitalize on opportunities for sustainable development and conservation of natural resources. As part of the IRG team, SI designed and manages the ABCI-wide monitoring and evaluation system to ensure a result-orientation, communication among the ABCI consortia and other key regional stakeholders and the furthering of the Initiative's conservation objectives.
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Indonesia Orangutan Conservation Services Program (OCSP): USAID, 2007-2010
The OCSP is a crisis response program that aims to maximize protection and long-term survival of viable orangutan populations in the wild. As part of the DAI team, Social Impact works to arrest and reduce the threats to orangutans as well as address the major drivers of those threats; mainly habitat loss and population decline through forest conversion and logging. SI leads project monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure that conservation, habitat and species protection goals and targets are achieved. Timely and accurate monitoring information is used for management decision-making and demonstrating results to communities, USAID and other stakeholders. SI also leads the gender strategy for OCSP to ensure that both women and men participate in--and receive benefits from—conservation schemes such as alternative farming practices and resource management activities including community education, boundary patrol and social sanctions.
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Global Integrated Water and Coastal Resources Management: USAID, 2004-09
Water and coastal resources are critical to sustainable development. Fresh water, in particular, is often viewed as the earth's most precious natural resource. The international community and USAID have reached a consensus that water and coastal resources must be managed using a comprehensive, integrated approach. The Water IQC-with a $ 2 billion ceiling—provides the vehicle to identify and employ innovative approaches to resolve the wide range of water and coastal resource management issues facing the world today. As part of the DAI Consortium, SI provides services related to gender analysis, performance monitoring, participatory planning and institutional capacity building to support USAID water projects around the globe. Learn how to access SI services as part of the USAID Water IQC.
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Indonesia—Strengthening Environmental Management: USAID Environmental Services Project: USAID, 2005-09
SI works with DAI on this large project that, through community and municipal linkages, promotes comprehensive policy reform and expansion of water supplies and services throughout Indonesia. SI works on the ground to develop and implement a gender strategy for the project, to ensure that women fully participate in all aspects of the project and receive improved water quality and services. SI is also supporting effective project collaboration between local and international NGOs, especially in the Tsunami-affected areas of Ache.
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Strengthening Environmental Program Quality, Global Environment Facility, 2005
The Global Environment Facility (GEF), hosted by the World Bank, helps developing countries fund projects and programs that protect the global environment. GEF projects are often weak in their results orientation and their ability to monitor environmental outcomes. SI provided specialized training to strengthen the skills of GEF project teams in results-based program design and management, and use of Results Frameworks. As a result, GEF staff is better able to assess and strengthen the quality of new and on-going GEF projects.
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Development Marketplace: Capacity Building Primers for Environmental NGOs: World Bank, 2005
SI worked with 78 finalist organizations participating in the World Bank's Global Development Marketplace on "Livelihoods for a Sustainable Environment." SI prepared and delivered customized training for over 150 participants on capacity building topics for environmental NGOs—-organizational assessment, strategic planning, financial resource diversification and results-based monitoring and evaluation. As a result of the SI sessions, many of the finalists are re-addressing some of their most pressing organizational needs through low-cost capacity building resources.
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Sharpening Global Environmental Strategies: World Bank, 2004
SI worked with the World Bank to assess its global sector strategies for Environment and Forestry. In the assessments SI recommended that sector teams provide a clearer rationale for their choice of core outcome indicators, and better alignment of the strategies with monitoring of key factors -such as environmental degradation practices or environmentally unsound government policies- that would affect results. Both reviews were used by the sector teams to sharpen the results-focus and monitoring of the respective strategies.
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Building Commitment to New Environmental Policy: Inter-American Development Bank, 2004
SI worked with the Environment Division of the IADB to design and facilitate a public consultation with environmental NGOs and aid agencies in Washington concerning its draft environmental policy. Over 50 groups provided input on policies for environmental safeguards and mainstreaming the environment. Separate consultations were held by IADB in the LAC region. As a result IADB's new strategy is better grounded and enjoys support from key actors within, and outside of, the LAC region.
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Strengthening Environmental Project Design: World Bank, 2001-05
SI supported project design teams working in all regions of the world to design new environmental projects with a focus on clear, realistic and measurable environmental outcomes. Through HQ-based technical assistance SI strengthened the "quality at entry" of over 20 environmental projects and programs including the flagship Madagascar Environmental Protection Program; Meso-American Bio-corridor Project; Nigeria Micro Watershed and Environmental Management Project; Argentina Coastal Protection Project; and the Tunisia Protected Areas Project. As a result of these efforts the projects are more likely to achieve demonstrable results.
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El Salvador: Strengthening Projects for Economic Change, Poverty and Environment: World Wildlife Fund, 2002
The purpose of the five-country ECPE project is to help countries develop "win-win" environment and poverty reduction policies. Working with the World Wildlife Fund in El Salvador, SI led training and technical assistance for project teams from China, Zambia, South Africa, Indonesia and El Salvador to strengthen the design of, and set realistic goals for, the ECPE projects. SI also worked with the teams to strengthen their skills in the use of tools for implementing policy change. Each of these projects and the lessons learned from the ECPE program are part of a new book on poverty reduction and natural resource management influencing current policy debates by donors and governments.
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Addressing Root Causes of Biodiversity Loss: World Wildlife Fund, 2001-04
SI collaborated with WWF's Macroeconomics Program Office to develop and refine a participatory methodology for assessing the social, political and economic causes of biodiversity loss. SI then designed, developed and conducted a pilot training program on this topic for WWF staff members. A book has been published highlighting the methodology (comprised of assessment, strategic and action planning steps,) corresponding training package and user's materials that is being widely promoted among the environmental NGO community and international donors.