FESS

Description

With the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) , FESS has developed an Environmental Security Assessment Framework for Countries, Natural Resource Sectors, Subnational Regions, and Ecosystems (ESAF). The framework is designed to identify risks to nations and regions that arise as a result of the confluence of environmental and political, economic, and societal factors, and to evaluate the implications of these risks. The ESAF is intended to provide consistency for comparisons across countries and regions, while focusing on the specificities of local economic, political, social, cultural, and environmental factors. The goal of the ESAF is to inform policymakers, facilitate the establishment of policy priorities, and contribute to the development of effective and sustainable programs. Between 2003 and 2005, FESS conducted pilot studies in Nepal , the Dominican Republic , and Uganda . In 2006, FESS completed an environmental security assessment study focusing on the mining sector in the Philippines . In late 2008, FESS launched its current ESAF study, which focuses on Ethiopia's Lake Tana watershed . The ESAF proceeds in nine phases. Phase I of the ESAF sets out the initial profile of the country, subnational region, natural resource sector, or ecosystem under study. This profile provides baseline information about the politics, economics, social structure, culture, history, and foreign relations of the area and is the first stage in determining fault lines or cleavages that may be relevant to stability and security. Phases II and III ground environmental security within the context of natural resource-based economic activities, social conditions, and the physical environment. These two phases examine qualitative and quantitative economic and social data linked to the environment to identify issues, sectors, and resources important to stability, collectively referred to as Critical Concerns (CCs). However, in recognition of the fact that the compilation of quantitative data equivalent to that available for countries is often difficult or impossible to compile for sectors, subregions, and ecosystems, a list of qualitative questions also is used as the basis for generating information about linkages among economy, society, environment, and sustainability. Through further analysis in Phase III, the relative condition and vulnerability of each CC is investigated, thereby identifying a set of key environmental problems. To understand the scope and underlying factors associated with these key problems, each one is then disaggregated and studied more closely by examining the impact on the CCs of environmental governance, defined as the traditions and institutions by which power, responsibility, and authority are exercised over a population's natural resources. This phase asks questions about citizen access to public institutions to air grievances, perceptions about the responsiveness of institutions and officials with responsibility for environmental governance, and plans and capacities for responding to shocks, such as natural hazards.

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