ASDP: Environmental And Social Management Framework

• 5.1 Environmental Assessment (OP4.01, BP 4.01, GP 4.01)This policy requires environmental assessment (EA) of projects/programs proposed forBank financing to help ensure that they are environmentally sound and sustainable, andthus improve decision making. The EA is a process whose breadth, depth, and type ofanalysis depend on the nature, scale, and potential environmental impact of the programinvestments/sub projects under the DADPs in particular but the ASDP in general. TheEA process takes into account the natural environment (air, water, and land); humanhealth and safety; social aspects (involuntary resettlement, indigenous peoples, andcultural property) and transboundary and global environmental aspects.The environmental and social impacts of the ASDP will come from the sub projects andinvestments contained in the DADPs of the qualifying districts that will receive financingunder the ASDP. However, since the location of these sub projects/investments will notbe identified before appraisal of the program, the EA process calls for the GoT toprepare an Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) report which willestablish a mechanism to determine and assess future potential environmental andsocial impacts during implementation of the sub project activities and investmentscontained in the approved DADPs under the proposed ASDP, and then to set outmitigation, monitoring and institutional measures to be taken during operations of theseactivities, to eliminate adverse environmental and social impacts, offset them, or reducethem to acceptable levels.OP 4.01 further requires that the ESMF report must be disclosed as a separate andstand alone document by the Government of Tanzania and the World Bank as acondition for bank Appraisal of the ASDP. The disclosure should be both in Tanzaniawhere it can be accessed by the general public and local communities and at theInfoshop of the World Bank and the date for disclosure must precede the date forappraisal of the program and no later than 120 days prior to the board approval date ofthe World Bank’s Board of Directors as required by the United States Federal Law 23The policy further calls for the ASDP as a whole to be environmentally screened todetermine the extent and type of the EA process. The ASDP has thus been screenedand assigned an EA Category B. This category of projects/programs is defined asfollows.Category B projects are likely to have potential adverse environmental impactson human populations or environmentally important areas – including wetlands,forests, grasslands, and other natural habitats – and are less adverse than thoseof category A projects. These impacts are site specific, few if any of them areirreversible, and in most cases mitigation measures can be designed morereadily than for category A projects. The EA process for category B projectsexamines the potential negative and positive environmental impacts andrecommends any measures needed to prevent, minimize, mitigate, orcompensate for adverse impacts and improve environmental performance.23 Pelosi Amendment (US Federal Law) prohibits US Executive Directors of multi-national developmentagencies from voting in favor of the agencies lending operations if the EA reports are not publicly disclosed120 days prior to board date.39/114