Strategic environmental assessment - concept and practice

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a tool for including environmental considerations into policies, plans, and programs at the earliest stages of decisionmaking. SEA extends the application of environmental assessments (EAs) from projects to policies, programs, and plans. Ideally, SEA is participatory, giving voice to those affected by policy, programs, and plans. While there is considerable debate regarding what constitutes an SEA, it is increasingly recognized as a continuum of approaches, rather than a single, fixed approach. At one end of the spectrum SEA focuses on integrating environmental effects into higher levels of decision-making. At the other end of the spectrum are sustainability assessments which take into account not only the environmental effects of policy, programs, and plans but also their social and economic effects on current and future generations. The purpose of this Note is to inform World Bank task managers about SEA and its use as a tool at the World Bank. We begin by briefly sketching the evolution of the SEA concept, summarizing regional and country approaches to SEA, and describing how SEA is being undertaken in activities supported by the World Bank.