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Regional Mission Environmental Officer Documents

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The Regional Environmental Advisor (REA) serves within the USAID/Southern Africa Regional General Development Office, and provides support for compliance with the Title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 216 (22 CFR 216) requirements for all USAID-funded activities in 13 Southern African countries. The REA serves as the principal environmental advisor to eight USAID country Missions including South Africa, USAID partners, regional and international organizations, non-governmental and private voluntary organizations, and the private sector on matters relating to environmental regulations, procedures, and policies of USAID. The REA helps USAID programs formulate overall guidance, and helps interpret policy regarding 22 CFR 216. The REA drafts and/or assists Mission Environmental Officers (MEOs) and Mission project teams to develop their environmental analysis for Country Strategic Planning (ADS 202), draft Initial Environmental Examinations (IEEs), Requests for Categorical Exclusion, or Environmental Assessments (EAs), Supplemental Environmental Assessment, and Pesticides Evaluation Report and Safer Use Action Plans (PERSUAP) needed to satisfy compliance with 22 CFR 216. The REA serves as trainer and resource person available to support regional environmental management and assessment training workshops in the Southern Africa region and to all francophone countries in Africa.

The REA also works with USAID MEOs, host countries, and regional organizations to strengthen local capacities in environmental program design, assessment, and monitoring and evaluation. The REA complements other Regional Environmental Officers at USAID Regional Missions in East and West Africa, the USAID Africa Bureau Environmental Officer and the Agency Environmental Coordinator to coordinate support and capacity building functions and to foster coordination on Regulation 216 issues.

 

Resources

USAID’s Environmental Procedures are set out in Federal regulations (22CFR216, or “Reg. 216”) and in USAID’s Automated Directives System (ADS), particularly Parts 201.3.12.2.b and 204.

Compliance with these procedures is mandatory. They apply to every program, project, activity, and amendment supported with USAID funds.

 

Africa Bureau (AFR) Environmental Screening and Review Forms (April 2004) (pdf, 145 KB)

Environmental Screening Form is for use in the review and approval of subproject proposals that are: (1) carried out under an “umbrella” project; and (2) defined and reviewed after approval of the overall or “umbrella project.”  The Environmental Review Report presents the environmental issues associated with the proposed activities. It also documents mitigation and monitoring commitments. Its purpose is to allow the applicant and USAID to evaluate the likely environmental impacts of the project.

 

Environmental Compliance Language (ECL) for Solicitations & Awards (May 2008) (pdf, 84 KB)

ADS 204.3.4.a.6; 303.3.6.3e requires that IEE and EA conditions statements are incorporated into procurement instruments. ECL is conceived as a tool to mainstreaming of environmental concerns by integrating environmental compliance into USAID’s typical project design and implementation processes. Otherwise called ADS Help Document, ECL is a combination of step-by-step guidance and boilerplate text to assemble appropriate, ADS-mandated environmental compliance language for all solicitations and awards. ECL can be used in any type of procurement instrument (contracts, cooperative agreements, grants, etc.).

 

USAID Environmental Compliance Best Practice Review

Best Practice Review is a tool to support and improve Mission compliance with USAID’s environmental procedures over project lifecycles, and to “mainstream” this compliance as a part of normal Mission operations.

 

USAID MEO Handbook (Mach 2009) (pdf, 1.14 MB)

The purpose of the MEO Handbook is to provide MEOs with guidance and the resources they need to be effective in helping missions attain and maintain full compliance with USAID’s environmental procedures and to mainstream environmentally sound design and management (ESDM).

 

Templates for RCE and IEE

These are intended to serve as resource and tool for use by IEE drafters. It provides “Standard” format of IEEs and RCEs.

 

Environmental Mitigation & Monitoring Tracking System (EMMTS) (November 2009) (pdf, 32 KB)

As required by ADS 204.5.4, USAID activities shall be "actively monitored and evaluated to determine whether the environmental features designed for the activity resulting from the 22 CFR 216 process are being implemented effectively and whether there are new or unforeseen consequences arising during implementation that were not identified and reviewed in accordance with 22 CFR 216." Among others, USAID/SA developed the EMMTS to help teams meet their statutory responsibilities.  This document serves as a checklist for field visits.

 

FAA 118-199 Biodiversity and Tropical Forest Assessment

This analysis is required by Sections 118(e) and 119(d) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, and may not be waived, modified, or eliminated by the responsible Bureau for country-level Operating Unit Strategic Plans. All country-level Operating Unit Strategic Plans must include a summary of analyses of the following issues: (1) the actions necessary to conserve biological diversity and tropical forestry, and (2) the extent to which the actions proposed meet the needs thus identified.

 

Africa Bureau (AFR) Regional MEO Training

This is a 4-5-day workshop on the efficient and effective implementation of USAID’s mandatory environmental compliance procedures, and the environmentally sound design and implementation of development activities. The emphasis is on field-based case studies and working groups with limited didactic presentations. Mission Environmental Officers (MEOS) are primarily targeted.

 

Sample USAID Mission Order

Mission Order reaffirms USAID’s commitment to full compliance with its mandatory environmental procedures, summarizes these procedures in plain language, and sets out the roles and responsibilities of organizational units and functions in the Mission in achieving and assuring compliance.  The plain-language summary does not however, supersede the statutory, regulatory, and ADS language that governs and constitutes these procedures.