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Reinforce Public Participation Provisions of WFD, other EU Directives and Aarhus Convention

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Reinforce Public Participation Provisions of WFD, other EU Directives and Aarhus Convention

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  1. Enhancing Access to Information and Public Participationin Environmental Decision-makingUNDP-GEF Danube Regional Project Component 3.4Magda Toth Nagy, Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europeon behalf of Jane Bloom Stewart/Ernestine Meijer, New York UniversityRuth Greenspan Bell, Resources for the Future

  2. Reinforce Public Participation Provisions of WFD, other EU Directives and Aarhus Convention The purpose: • Assist officials /water managers in the Danube Basin to achieve the challenging requirements of the WFD and the Aarhus Convention • Strengthen access to information and public participation to address priority sources of water pollution in the Danube River Basin (“hot spots”) Where and when? • Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro (Sept.04 – Dec.06)

  3. How? • Capacity building for officials tasked to implement WFD requirements • Targeted technical assistance • Legal, policy & practical measures • Field-test approaches at hot spot locations • Develop country-specific solutions, • but share experience regionally • Harmonized approach • Joint capacity building

  4. Activities • Series of national consultations • Needs Assessments prepared, reviewed • National workshops conducted in 5 countries • Discussed and agreed on country needs, priorities • Agreed on proposed country activities and demonstration sites • Country activity plans developed and implemented • Study Tours for Officials and NGOs to US and the Netherlands (June, November 2006) to learn from experience of mature systems

  5. Activities • Regional workshops • To address barriers and problems common to all five countries and define future joint activities • To build capacity to assist with implementation of WFD • To give possibility to participants to share experience and learn from the experience of EU and other countries • Demonstration projects implemented by NGOs in cooperation with municipalities and agencies • At 5 selected water pollution hotspot locations • Test ideas at local level regarding public access to water related information and public participation in decision making • Reports concerning access to information and public participation improvements for ICPDR • Dissemination of project results, models, lessons learned • in 5 countries • in other Danube River Basin countries • Basin wide dissemination workshop (Oct. 2006)

  6. Anticipated Results/Deliverables • Identified priorities and gaps • Measures developed to address them in participatory process • Improved capacity built at national and local level leading to improvements • Successful good practice in pilot projects • Practical country-specific products developed and disseminated (guidance materials, methodologies, manuals, etc.)

  7. Main Objective of Communications Strategy • To support capacity building and change in mentality for Danube government officials and NGOs • To ensure wide dissemination of lessons learned in the project • To enable communications between officials and NGOs in each country and between the five countries

  8. How Communications Strategy Is Developed Target audience and objectives: • Primary target audience - Actors of the project • Officials at national and regional agency level (ministries, water directorates, environmental agencies) • NGOs at regional and national level involved in Danube issues • Secondary target audience - Actors of the project • Authorities and NGOs at local & hotspot level Objective for primary and secondary audiences: to involve them in the project activities and assist them to fulfill their tasks • Tertiary target audience - who can learn from the project • Officials and NGOs at Danube basin level Objective for tertiary audience: to reach out and disseminate information to them, share experience/results

  9. How Communications Strategy Is Developed • Involvement of target audience and others in developing communications strategy • Identification of target audience, key messages, methods, products and activities at all levels of project activities • Implementing consortium develops overall project level communications strategy • Country teams develop national level communication steps • Pilot demonstration project teams develop local level communications steps • DRP expert assists in development of Strategy in all three levels • Products we will share: • Guidance materials, regulations & recommendations • Manuals and citizen brochures • Training and capacity building workshops/materials • Results of demonstration projects resulting in better access to information and public involvement at local, hotspot level

  10. How Communications Strategy Is Developed Tools to be used • Electronic and print media (articles and regular columns) • Web sites at regional, national and local level, links to ICPDR/DRP • E-mail lists (project participants) and electronic networks • Aarhus clearinghouse, Aarhus and IW community • Local, national, regional and international workshops Impact of the communications activities will be measured by feedback from different target audiences

  11. Most Significant Results So Far • Understanding the need to develop a Communications Strategy • Support from DRP communications expert • Discussions with and capacity building for project partners at regional, national and local level (regional workshop, direct contacts) • Designing Communications Strategy

  12. Challenges We Face • Limited skills and capacities to develop and implement a communications strategy at country and local levels • How best to make results of the project appealing and understandable • Public disinterest (competing information and priorities) • Competing workload demands of participating officials and NGOs

  13. Some Significant Lessons Learned • Capacity building and expert assistance is needed for the project teams • Communication is needed in English and in local languages • Planning should be built into the project preparation phase • Network of communications experts created and prepared to support work at national and local languages

  14. Our thanks to the UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project for their support and trust

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