Integrated strategic environmental assessments in post-crisis countries

A guidance note for integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in sustainable reconstruction and development planning

This guidance note was drafted to document lessons learned in the three project countries (Nepal, Sri Lanka, Côte d'Ivoire) and in doing so, it provides a step-by-step practical guide for countries in post-crisis situations to undertake Post-Crisis Integrated Strategic Environmental Assessments (Integrated SEA). The Integrated SEA approach builds upon current SEA practices, while placing greater emphasis on integrating disaster risk and climate change impacts into a participatory data collection, mapping and planning process.

This publication provides practical guidance on how to manage the process of assembling data and obtaining consensus from a wide range of actors to produce robust and widely accepted ‘opportunity maps’ for sustainable reconstruction and development. Recommendations from Integrated SEA processes should aim to be institutionalized into formal land-use planning processes. As such, Post-Crisis Integrated SEAs can be considered a bridge between post-crisis humanitarian action and sustainable development planning.