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Environmental & Social Management Frameworkinstitutions suffer from this problem, and can only be resolved by either awholesale reform throughout the public sector, or by establishing a RoadAuthority that is free to operate outside the current public sector constraints• A large number of engineers have received training abroad inenvironmental issues, whilst employed in the Unit. However, the Unit hasnot retained any of them, meaning that all training efforts are largelywasted.• GESU staff has no skill and expertise for conducting survey works requiredfor data analysis and project preparation.• With the increase in the DoR road construction, upgrading andmaintenance activities, the demand for increased volume of environmentaland social tasks has also increased, without a corresponding increase inthe capacity of the Unit to manage this increased workload.• .In spite of it’s relative new mandate to deal with all social aspects of roadprojects (e.g. preparation of Resettlement Action Plans as necessary) theUnit has no staffing provision, training material and guidelines to executesuch tasks. Without provision of a permanent position for a Senior SocialExpert there will be severe shortcomings in implementing the ESMF, ininstitutionalising the process from planning to monitoring phases, and therewill be no successful internalisation of the lessons learned and documentedfrom ongoing and past projects.• Key officials and engineers assigned to the Unit do not have adequatetraining in social and environmental issues. The Unit has hardly anyexpertise to review or evaluate projects documents (environmental andsocial assessment studies) prepared by consultants. Of the 248 officialsand engineers trained in social and environmental issues over the years,none of them could be utilised by the Unit.• The Unit at present is suffering from a severe shortage of experts andskilled manpower to cope with the ongoing and forthcoming tasks (e.g. thisSRN program alone will produce, on behalf of DoR/GESU, a series of 15IEE and one EIA document that need to be reviewed, commented andprepared for submission to the MoPPW and MoEST respectively – a timeframe of at least 6 months of intensive labour would be foreseen, under thecondition that skilled and sufficient staff would be at hand for only thesetasks.• The Unit has no separate Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Desk orSection that could be effectively used in improving its operations and/orproviding suggestions for procurement of external consulting and contractservices.• The lack of incentives adversely affects motivation and commitment of theofficials.10.3.5 Specific Issues Identified at Procedural Level• The Research and Development Section (R&D) has no System Analystand hence lacks a database needed to construct a MIS for the Unit. Thismakes the wider dissemination of the data on a systematic basisimpossible.• The DoR itself takes a long time in processing project proposals, IEE /EIAReports, etc. due to a shortage of skilled technical personnel.• The DoR is equipped with various Environmental Laws, Manuals,Handbooks, etc., but these are used on ad-hoc basis.Chapter 10-6 April 2007
Environmental and Social Management Framework• Environmental auditing is seldom done due to lack of funds, logistics andexpertise in the field.• The Reference Manual is used during the design and implementationstages. However, it appears that this Manual lacks an appropriate legalframework for its implementation to meet donor requirements forcompensation.• Poor budgeting and lack of required logistics and facilities adversely affectthe Unit’s performance and capability to carry out the tasks it is mandatedfor.10.4 ConclusionsPolicymakers and project planners are becoming increasingly aware of thepotential negative environmental and social impacts of road projects in Nepal. Asa result, the need for inclusion of environmental and social considerations,techniques and skills to be included in road planning and management has beenidentified. Such awareness is particularly prevalent among policymakers andproject planners in the DoR. It is this awareness within the DoR, together withidentical concerns by Donors and their Agencies, that has led to the presentstudy concerning social and environmental issues in DoR road projects. But theDoR in its present form has inadequate resources and operational autonomy todeal with the issues.The preliminary assessment of the capacity of GESU both at institutional andindividual levels shows inherent weaknesses in the Unit’s ability to effectivelycoordinate with other concerned agencies and to address the social andenvironmental issues of road projects. The findings and discussions with relevantrepresentatives also suggest that the GESU in its present form, including oneHead of Unit and two engineers, has very limited capacity to either manage ormitigate the various side effects during road project implementation.The present conclusions are:(i) At its institutional and organisational level, the GESU enjoys only an observerstatus in policymaking and implementation in DoR as well as in otherconcerned agencies. Its authority to manage effective coordination istherefore very limited.(ii) The GESU, in its present situation, has very little capacity to deal with themost of the social issues that are potentially associated with roaddevelopment projects, because it does neither have a social desk nor thepersonnel and budget required.(iii) The Unit’s environmental desk lacks the capacity to perform supervision andcompliance monitoring for ongoing road development projects.(iv) The Unit does not have the required resources and suffers from inadequateand unpredictable funding. As a result, it is unable to discharge its assignedtasks satisfactorily, perform at desired level and hence, deliver the expectedservices at an optimum (or required) level.(v) At an individual level, the Unit has benefited from training in bio-engineering.Engineers trained in this field have succeeded in stabilising and protectinghighway slopes. However, it lacks experts and skilled manpower in the fieldof environmental and social assessment, and, above all, in adequatelyreviewing and preparing IEEs and EIAs.(vi) The existing staff does not have adequate incentives or motivation toundertake works that are often considered thankless and not valued. As aApril 2007 Chapter 10-7
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Government of NepalMinistry of Phys
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