European Union Water Initiative Plus for the Eastern Partnership (EUWI+ 4 EaP)

1. GREEN ACTION TASK FORCE ANNUAL MEETING
30 SEPTEMBER – 1 OCTOBER 2019, OECD
European Union Water Initiative Plus for the Eastern Partnership
(EUWI+ 4 EaP)
UNECE / PARIS, 1st October 2019

2. ITEM 6. STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR
DELIVERING WATER SECTOR REFORM AND
SDGS
European Union Water Initiative Plus for the Eastern Partnership
(EUWI+ 4 EaP)
UNECE / PARIS, 1st October 2019

3. Background
• 2006 EU Water Initiative (EUWI) National Policy Dialogues (NPDs)
started in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, facilitated
by UNECE and OECD, ongoing in 10 countries with funding from
European Commission (EUWI+ and WECOOP), Finland
(FinWaterWei II), Norway
• EUWI+ project for the 6 Eastern Partnership countries; 24.5 mln EUR
(23.5 mln EUR funding from DG NEAR/European Commission);
• Sep 2016 – Aug 2020; Implementing Partners: UNECE, OECD, EU
Member States Consortium (Austria (UBA) and France (IoW))
• To support partner countries in bringing their national policies and
strategies in line with the EU Water Framework Directive and MEAs

4. EXPECTED RESULTS EUWI+
RESULT 2
Planning
Data
management
Monitoring
Result 1: Legal and regulatory framework
improved in line with the EU Water
Framework Directive (WFD), Integrated
Water Resources Management and
Multilateral Environmental Agreements
(Water Convention and the Protocol on
Water and Health).
Result 2: River Basins Management Plans
designed and implemented in line with
the EU WFD principles (Lab
development, Monitoring systems, data
management, etc.)
Result 3 Lessons learnt regularly collected,
shared and communicated to
stakeholders.
RESULT 1
National Policy
Dialogue
Legislative
and regulatory
reform
Capacity
Development
RESULT 3
Stakeholders
involvement
Communication

5. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
Overview on the SEA Protocol under the Espoo Convention
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• The Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in a
Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) has been supplemented by a
Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).
• The Protocol was adopted and be opened for signature at the Ministerial
‘Environment for Europe’ Conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 21 May 2003 and
entered into force on 11 July 2010.
• Although negotiated under UNECE, the Protocol is open to all UN members.
• The Espoo Convention and its Protocol on Protocol on SEA provide a legal
framework and clear procedures for the comprehensive integration of
environmental and health concerns into a wide range of development activities,
plans, programmes, policies and legislation in all economic sectors.

6. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
SEA Protocol – What it requires
• The Protocol requires its Parties to evaluate the environmental consequences of
their official draft plans and programmes incl. in the water sector.
• The Protocol also addresses policies and legislation, though the application of SEA
to these is not mandatory.
• SEA is undertaken much earlier in the decision-making process than EIA, and it is
therefore seen as a key tool for sustainable development.
• SEA allows the identification and prevention of possible environmental impact right
from the start in decision-making enables environmental objectives to be considered
on a par with socio-economic ones, bringing sustainable development closer.
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7. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
SEA Protocol – Public Participation
• The Protocol provides for extensive public participation in government
decision-making in numerous development sectors incl. the water
sector
• The public not only has the right to know about plans and programmes,
but also the right to comment, have their comments taken into account,
and be told of the final decision and why it was taken.
• The participation of the public in strategic decision-making builds on the
Espoo Convention the Aarhus Convention.
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8. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
SEA Protocol – Health
• Besides considering the typical environmental effects of plans and
programmes, the Protocol places a special emphasis on the
consideration of human health, going beyond existing legislation in the
region.
• This reflects the involvement of the World Health Organization in the
negotiations as well as the political commitments made at the 1999
London Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health.
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9. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
SEA Protocol - A SEA assists authorities responsible for plans or programmes, as
well as decision-makers, to take into account:
• Key environmental trends, potentials and constraints that may affect or may be
affected by the plan or programme.
• Environmental objectives and indicators that are relevant to the plan or
programme.
• Likely significant environmental effects of proposed options and the
implementation of the plan or programme.
• Measures to avoid, reduce or mitigate adverse effects and to enhance positive
effects.
• Views and information from relevant authorities, the public and, as relevant,
potentially affected States
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10. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
SEA Protocol – Benefits
• Improved protection of the environment and management of natural resources;
• Improved quality of plan- and programme-making and strategic documents;
• Increased efficiency of decision-making;
• Identification of new opportunities for development;
• Cost-saving and preventing costly mistakes;
• Strengthened governance; and
• Transboundary cooperation.
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11. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
The SEA Protocol under the Espoo
Convention and the Sustainable
Development Goals
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12. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
Example: SEA of the Water Strategy in Belarus
• The National Water Strategy of Belarus in the context of climate change until
2030 was drafted with support of OECD under the EUWI+. The overall aim is to
achieve long-term water security for the country for current and future
generations;
• Will replace the existing strategy until 2020 in the light of the National SD
Strategy until 2030, SDGs and other important national and international
strategies/commitments, 6 objectives strongly linked with SDG6;
• The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus
requested support of UNECE under the EUWI+ for the elaboration of SEA;
• Required under Law 399-3 on environmental assessment and SEA;
• Synergies with EU4Environment on capacity development under the SEA
Protocol. 12

13. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
Example: SEA of the Water Strategy in Belarus
• Will allow assessing impacts at the strategic level and building synergies with
other strategic programmes/plans, assess impacts of measures from the Action
Plan, provide alternatives;
• Kick-off meeting and workshop on scoping held in Minsk on 11 and 12 July.
• Finalization of the scoping report by December 2019;
• Environmental Report preparation by March 2020
• Finalization of the Draft Strategy in the light of SEA and its adoption – April-May
2020;
• Wider capacity development based on the pilot SEA (EU4Environment, May or
September 2020) 13

14. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
Example: SEA of the River Basin Management Plan for the Alazani-Iori basin in
Georgia
14Source: EUWI+ RBMP assessment report

15. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
Example: SEA of the River Basin Management Plan for the Alazani-Iori basin in
Georgia
• According to the EU Association Agreement with Georgia, the Ministry of
Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia (MEPA) has obligations on
Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA). In particular, the new national Code
on Environment Assessment requires a SEA to be carried out for all strategic and
policy documents, including river basin management plans.
• A new law was adopted in 2017 with UNECE support to align the national legal
framework with the UNECE Protocol on SEA and the relevant EU directives.
• The MEPA requested the UNECE to provide substantive and technical assistance in
carrying out a pilot SEA for the draft Alazani-lori River Basin Management Plan
(RBMP being prepared with support from the EU MS Consortium under EUWI+)
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16. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
Example: SEA for the River Basin Management for the Alazani-Iori basin in
Georgia
River Basin Management Plan for the Alazani/Iori (GE) - Workplan
• Description of activity
• Description of the characteristics of the river basin
• Pressures and impacts of human activities on water resources
• Identification and mapping of protected areas
• Economic analysis (part 1)
• First thematic summary
• Maps & Metadata catalogue
• Objectives
• Programme of measures – most relevant for SEA
• Economic analysis (part 2)
• Draft RBMP including dashboard on implementation monitoring
• Second thematic summary
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17. STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) FOR
STRATEGIC DOCUMENTS IN THE WATER SECTOR
Example: SEA for the River Basin Management for the Alazani-Iori basin in
Georgia - Steps
• Kick off workshop (Oct-Nov 2019)
• Scoping report preparation, and Scoping stakeholder consultation
• Baseline studies
• Analysis of likely environmental impacts, formulation of mitigation measures,
and preparation of the draft SEA report
• Consultations with the national environmental and health authorities and public
participation and stakeholder consultation on the draft Environmental Report
• Report on the public / stakeholder comments
• Preparation of the final version of the Environmental Report including a non-
technical summary
• Finalization and Adoption of the plan/programme
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18. Water, food,
energy,
ecosystem
nexus
- work under
theWater
Convention
ofUNECE
• Strong capacity building,
promoting integrated approach to
natural resource management:
- 5 meetings of theWater-Food-
Energy-Ecosystems NexusTask
Force
- 1 global stocktaking workshop
(2016)
• 4 nexus assessments completed
• 2 ongoing projects in different
stages of assessment
• Development of a tool for
sustainable renewable energy
planning and investments using a
nexus approach (focus on inter-
sectoral synergies)
• Synthesis: consolidated
methodology & summary
published (2018)
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19. CentralAsia
andCaucasus
work
 Alazani/Ganykh (Georgia andAzerbaijan) – pilot in 2014; Syr Darya
(Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) - publication in 2016
 Key partners: Finland (lead)/Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, FAO,
Royal Institute ofTechnology (Stockholm), cooperation with OECD.
 Inter-sectoral policy dialogue at transboundary level initiated in both
basins (2014-2016), focusing on
 regional cooperation framework (beyond the basin, e.g. power
interconnections); and
 national level coordination (NPDs provided a platform for discussing the
findings with relevant stakeholders)
 Analysis of national and transboundary benefits of inter-sectoral
cooperation: e.g. quantifying impact of energy efficiency and RE
energy expansion on water use in the Syr Darya; energy trade to
reduce pressure on fuelwood in the Alazani/Ganykh
 SEA among the “nexus solutions” we propose to reduce water-
energy-food trade-offs at an early stage of infrastructural planning
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20. Future nexus
work in the
region
 UNECE and ESCAP supporting the UN Special Programme for the
Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) – includes Afghanistan,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan.
 Request of support in the development of a new regional strategy
on Water, Energy and Environment (includes strategic
infrastructure)
 Promotion of sustainable trade of agricultural products to optimize
natural resource use in the region
 SPECAWG on Energy, Environment andWater meeting
(Tashkent, 2 October)
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21. A nexus
criteria for RE
development
Collaboration between Environment and Sustainable Energy
divisions of UNECE
1) Maximizing synergies: opportunities for investing in Renewable
Energy while achieving cross-sectoral benefits
 Financing challenges with renewable energy projects call for new
financing models and partnerships that promote synergies
 More and more technology options
2) Addressing trade-offs: a checklist for minimizing negative impacts
and enhancing sustainability
 Environmental assessments (EIA, SEA) incl. inTB context
 Strategic planning e.g. spatial developments
 Public participation and transparency
 Sustainable hydropower development and operations (guidelines)
 Sustainable non-hydropower development
 Intersectoral cooperation at national level
 Regional dialogue and cooperation beyond water – energy,
agriculture, environment
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22. CONTACT
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www.facebook.com/euwiplus/
www.euwipluseast.eu
UNECE Alisher Mamadzhanov, Christine Kitzler
https://www.unece.org/env/water/npd/