Q 1: What is the NCSA?

A:     The National Capacity Self-Assessment is a global programme funded by the GEF, to enable countries to carry out a systematic assessment of their capacity needs to strengthen the management of national and global environmental issues, particularly with regard to the Rio Conventions.

The NCSA is the first part of the GEF Strategic Approach to Enhance Capacity Building, which was initiated in 2003 in response to the findings of the GEF Capacity Development Initiative.

Q 2: Which countries are engaged in the NCSA?

A:     All countries eligible for GEF funding can apply for an NCSA Enabling Activity grant. Currently, over 150 developing countries and countries with economies in transition are implementing an NCSA. By mid 2007, about a third of these countries are completing the last stages of the NCSA, while another third is still at the early stages of the NCSA.

Q 3: How long should an NCSA take?

A:     The GEF operational guidelines anticipated that an average NCSA assessment and planning could be undertaken in 1 to 1.5 years. However, experience so far indicates that most countries need more time, on average about 3 years. This is particularly due to time-consuming project preparation arrangements, stakeholder consultation processes, inter-agency collaboration, as well as the perceived complexity of cross-cutting issues, both operational and environmental.
 

To expedite the NCSA process, an important lesson is to make better use of existing data, from other national environmental sector assessments and plans, including those from other GEF Enabling Activities. This also allows the NCSA team to concentrate on the core issues of capacity needs to address the country's priority environmental issues, and on planning effective capacity development activities.

Q 4: What are the guiding principles of the NCSA?

A:     The GEF has specified a number of general guiding principles for the conduct of an NCSA in its Operational Guidelines. These are:

·       National ownership and leadership;

·       Use of existing coordinating structures and mechanisms;

·       Attention to the Rio Conventions provisions and decisions on capacity development;

·       Multi-stakeholder participation, consultation and decision making;

·       Build on existing/ ongoing work relevant to the NCSA, e. g. Enabling Activities and reporting to the conventions;

·       Holistic approach to capacity development at the individual, institutional and systems level;

·       Long-term approach in the context of sustainable development.

Q 5: What are the suggested steps of the NCSA process?

A:     The scope and details of the NCSA process and outputs need to be tailored to suit the situation in the individual country. The general NCSA guidelines suggest the following systematic, step-by-step approach, also described in the NCSA Resource Kit: 

·       Inception: getting stakeholders involved and organized - see NCSA Resource Kit Step 1

·       Stocktaking: drawing together information on past and current environmental management and capacity development in the country - see NCSA Resource Kit Step 2

·       Thematic Assessments: analyzing the state of the environment, priority issues and capacity needs in the country, with respect to each environmental focal area and multilateral environmental agreement - see NCSA Resource Kit Step 3

·       Cross-cutting Assessment: analyzing priority issues and capacity needs that are common to or cut across the environmental focal areas - see NCSA Resource Kit Step 4

·       Capacity Strategy and Action Plan: preparing the key product from the NCSA, a strategic plan of the future capacity development actions that are proposed for the country

 - see NCSA Resource Kit Step 5

·       Final Report: documenting the actions taken, findings and conclusions of the completed NCSA project - see NCSA Resource Kit Step 5

Q 6: What is the GEF Strategic Approach to Capacity Development?

A:     The GEF Strategic Approach to Enhance Capacity Building was approved by the GEF Council in 2003. It defines four pathways for the provision of capacity assessment and capacity development support to countries. These pathways commence with the NCSA and lay out possible follow-up components through which capacity development can be organized and carried out:

Pathway 1   National Capacity Self-Assessment

  For eligible countries to conduct a broad self-assessment of capacity needs
  for environmental management within and across focal areas and prepare a
  national capacity action plan.

Pathway 2   Capacity development within regular projects

  To support improved design and delivery of capacity development activities
  as an integral part of focal area projects

Pathway 3   Cross-cutting capacity development projects

  To support capacity development actions relevant to more than one focal
  area

Pathway 4   Capacity of LDC and SIDS

  To meet the special capacity needs of Least Developed Countries and Small
  Island Developing States.

Q 7: Why is the NCSA inception important?

A:     The NCSA should be a comprehensive assessment of the country's capacity to address the prevailing global environmental issues, and should be owned and driven by the people and institutions who are key national stakeholders in governing these issues. During inception, arrangements are made for stakeholder consultations, participation and activities through the NCSA project. The purpose of the NCSA, how it will be carried out, the logical framework, methodology and outputs are confirmed and agreed.

Whether the inception is undertaken in a fully participatory workshop style, at the central level or with involvement of provinces or even the community level, through joint decisions or information only, is to be decided by each NCSA team. The inception should ensure that key stakeholder groups are aware of the NCSA and can get involved. This also prepares the ground for NCSA results and recommendations to be taken up, carried forward and implemented with the support of the most appropriate actors.

Q 8: Who are key stakeholder groups for an NCSA?

A:     Key stakeholder groups in the country may include national government agencies local governments, private businesses and associations, academic institutions, civil society and local community organizations, and the public. They are all likely to be involved, to varying degrees, in a country's systems for managing environmental issues, and so may need to be engaged in various parts of the capacity needs assessment and planning exercise. Their role in carrying out the NCSA and the manner of their engagement needs to be determined for each group. The NCSA project team and a Steering Committee are given the task of organizing and facilitating the actual analysis and planning work. Some key stakeholders will be represented on the team or committee, while others will need to be kept informed, to be consulted with, or to be engaged as essential participants in the work.

Rather than being concerned to make the NCSA a highly participatory process, it is more important to ensure that all key stakeholders have a chance to make an input at significant stages of the process, and to endorse the major outputs.

Q 9: How to ensure political support for the NCSA?

A:     Politicians, managerial levels and decision makers in governmental and non-governmental organizations are key stakeholders, particularly for ensuring that the NCSA is well connected to other national planning processes and budgetary decisions, as well as for securing that NCSA results and recommendations are followed-up with concrete capacity development implementation. Involving them, e.g. through workshops, informing them about progress and including them in decision-making and endorsement of NCSA results broadens the basis of national ownership.

National Project Directors are usually higher-ranking officials and it should be among their tasks to ensure good connectivity of the NCSA to other ongoing processes and programmes, such as inter-agency groups, sustainable development committees and the like.

The Steering Committee also has an important role, both in guiding the NCSA project as such, and in ensuring that governmental and non-governmental agencies beyond the environment are aware of the NCSA, are kept abreast of its results and become involved in its follow-up implementation. Therefore, the terms of reference for Steering Committees should clearly line out these responsibilities that go beyond mere project management.

Q 10: Is the NCSA restricted to the 3 Rio Conventions for
  climate change, biodiversity and land degradation?

A:     The main focus of the NCSA is on the 3 Conventions or multilateral environment agreements for climate change (UNFCCC), biodiversity (UNCBD) and land degradation (UNCCD). Therefore, emphasis should be placed on environmental priority issues and underlying capacity needs relating to these 3 MEAs.

However, in accordance with national environmental priorities, the NCSA can be broadened beyond the 3 Rio Convention to include other environmental areas, e.g. chemicals, International Waters, or biodiversity-related areas (CITES, CMS, Ramsar, Cartagena Protocol). Existing data, project experiences and capacity needs should be included in the assessment, analysis and action planning.

Only through active interplay with other national planning processes, an effective implementation of environmental priorities can be made possible and linkages to sustainable development be established.

See also: Operational Guidelines for Expedited Funding of National Self Assessments of Capacity Building Needs, GEF, 2001.

Q 11: Does the NCSA relate to other GEF Enabling Activities?

A:     The NCSA itself is a GEF Enabling Activity. Due to its relatively small size in terms of project budget and duration, but its considerable scope of assessing capacity needs and planning for capacity development responses to challenges across the Rio Conventions and national environmental management, the NCSA strongly depends on the results, processes and expert networks established for each EA.

Particularly for reviewing and (re-)affirming national environmental priorities, analyzing past and ongoing capacity development activities and firmly anchoring the NCSA action plan in national management structures, close linkage to GEF EAs and similar exercises is indispensable.

Among the Enabling Activities that build the backbone for the NCSA are:

·       National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), National Biosafety Framework, National Reporting to the UNCBD

·       National Communications, National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA, for LDC/SIDS only  related to UNFCCC)

·       National Action Programme (NAP), National Reports to the UNCCD

·       National Implementation Plan (NIP) for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

·       Strategic Action Programme (SAP), Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) under the International Waters focal area

Q 12: How does the NCSA connect to past and ongoing
  activities at national level?

A:     The main objective of the NCSA stocktaking is to provide an overview of the current status of environmental management in a country and to provide the baseline information for the ensuing capacity needs analysis.

This means not only the gathering of data, strategies and project documents that relate to environmental management and capacity assessment and allow for drawing lessons learned. It also implies to provide the assessment team(s) with the resources to connect to practitioners, experts, committees and processes that can contribute to the NCSA, give feedback on its results or follow-up on its recommendations.

Strategies and planning processes beyond the environment, such as National Agenda 21-related plans and policies, poverty reduction strategies (PRS), national development plans, national sustainable development strategies (NSDS), Millennium Development Goals needs assessments and the like are equally important resources to inform the NCSA. At the same time they are target areas for the NCSA results to ensure that the NCSA generates a long-term interest in capacity development and commitment to implement its findings.

Q 13: How can national environmental priorities be
  determined?

A:     The NCSAs main emphasis is on assessing capacity needs to address priority environmental challenges effectively and efficiently. It is not within the scope of the NCSA to analyze the national state of the environment in order to assess or even establish national environmental priorities. This is usually contained in national environmental strategies and programmes and analyzed in-depth in other Enabling Activities as well as reporting procedures to convention Secretariats, including compliance with convention requirements.

The task of the NCSA, particularly during the thematic assessments, is to review national environmental priorities laid out in above-mentioned documents. In interaction with experts and practitioners these existing strategies and assessments should be consulted and environmental priorities be re-affirmed. The core NCSA analysis is then on the technical, operational and managerial capacities needed to implement these priorities at the national level while contributing to global environmental issues.

Q 14: How to link national environmental priorities to global
  environmental issues?

A:     National environmental priorities are determined in sectoral strategies, policies and related documents, including Enabling Activity outputs. To verify whether these priorities are consistent with global environmental issues, reference should be made to convention texts, decisions and guidance provided by its Meetings and Conferences of Parties (M/COPs); these can be found at the websites of the respective Convention Secretariats (e.g. UNCCD, UNFCCC, UNCBD).

A valuable tool are UNEP's Issue Based Modules. Internet-based and interactive, they provide structured information on national implementation requirements under various biodiversity-related MEAs, based on existing articles, decisions, recommendations and resolutions.

Also useful for verifying the linkage between national priorities and global environmental issues are the GEF Operational Programmes. Issues detailed here cover the focal areas, strategic priorities in the GEF and main issues addressed by the relevant conventions. The operational programmes also allow for an initial judgment whether an activity to address an environmental challenge at the national level could be regarded as eligible for further GEF funding support.

Q 15: What is the difference between cross-cutting, inter-
  linkages, synergies, commonalities and similar concepts?

A:     Linkages or inter-linkages refer to issues and thematic areas that are addressed by more than one MEA. For example, forest management, land management or agricultural practices can have positive or negative implications for biodiversity, climate change and land degradation.

Synergies are additional positive impacts resulting from linking the implementation of MEA-related activities. E.g. harmonizing databases on climate change and biodiversity-related projects and its results can have additional positive effects on data availability and lessons learned for sustainable land management or fisheries, or provides added value for rendering legislative procedures more compatible.

Cross-cutting issues or commonalities in the context of the NCSA are capacity needs or opportunities that apply to multiple MEA-related areas. For example, decreasing an overlap in mandates and responsibilities of Environment, Forestry and Agriculture Ministries could benefit implementation procedures for projects implemented by different ministries and also serve environmental concerns addressed in more than one convention.

The term cross-cutting can be confusing as it is often applied to different subjects simultaneously:

·       Cross-cutting environmental issues that are common to multiple conventions, e.g. forest management affecting climate change, biodiversity and land degradation, or wetland areas with a high biological diversity and large storage capacity for CO².

·       Cross-cutting operational issues, such as data collection and analysis, that can be applied to multiple conventions, or inter-agency collaboration providing a better knowledge basis for planning responses to environmental challenges.

Capacity needs and opportunities, the focus of the NCSA, fall under the second category, if they are cross-cutting. In order to account for a credible environmental benefit and allow for monitoring and evaluation of implementation activities, however, a clear link to environmental issues and priorities has to be established and maintained during the NCSA analysis and particularly for the planning of follow-up responses and activities.

Q 16: Is an NCSA strategy and action plan necessary? What
  should it look like/ include?

A:     Yes. The NCSA is an analysis and planning exercise. To ensure effective follow-up, the NCSA results and recommendations have to be translated into corresponding capacity development actions, different stakeholder groups can be engaged in.

A National Capacity Development Action Plan should connect to specific environmental priorities and outline for each the necessary management strategies and areas of capacity development interventions. It should further describe specific capacity development actions, ideally in prioritized order, together with a rough implementation framework that outlines core roles and responsibilities of different actors, resource requirements and possible funding sources for the capacity development actions, timelines for its implementation as well as provisions for monitoring and evaluation.

In order to mobilize political support and commitment, the action plan should be strategically connected to other national planning processes and outline how capacity development actions can contribute to higher level frameworks such as a national environmental management strategy or a sustainable development plan.

Q 17: Who are the main users of the NCSA strategy and action
   plan and report?

A:     Although required outputs of the NCSA, the action plan and report are not products for the GEF alone. The main users are primarily national stakeholder groups that are interested and able to provide concrete follow-up activities based on the NCSA regulations. In order to ensure ownership of the results, these key stakeholder groups should be involved in the NCSA process the closest possible, including the development of the strategy and action plan.

Additional support for capacity development actions should also be sought from external sources, e.g. bilateral, regional and multilateral organizations for development cooperation.

Q 18: Can the NCSA include the implementation of capacity
  development activities?

A:     Funding for the NCSA is provided by the GEF for the capacity needs assessment and the development of an action plan only. Direct follow-up to the NCSA and the implementation of its results is not covered by this funding opportunity.

However, the NCSA process is flexible enough to allow for the inclusion of training components if the need is regarded as urgent for the NCSA process itself. For example, a consultant could be tasked with conducting a needs assessment and in parallel with a training for the NCSA team on assessment methodologies, project planning, report writing, development of TOR etc. Furthermore, ensuring that the NCSA is integrated into national planning processes might require awareness raising among decision makers. Maintaining the NCSA momentum to increase the commitment to implement its results can equally be regarded as central to the NCSA and as implementation of capacity development activities. Such provisions would have to be included in the project planning documents and be discussed with the Implementing Agency supporting the project management to ensure transparency and informed decision making.

Q 19: What are typical NCSA follow-up activities?

A:     Typically, NCSA Reports and Action Plans make specific recommendations for follow-up activities under each thematic area. These are often similar to the results of prior sectoral strategies and Enabling Activity outputs.

Suggested capacity development actions that cut across multiple MEAs were scrutinized in an initial analysis of completed NCSA Action Plans in March 2006 by the Global Support Programme. It categorized five main functional areas of capacity needs and related capacity development actions:

·       Stakeholder Engagement, including coordination mechanisms among agencies, partnership mechanisms, staff development and community participation

·       Information and Knowledge, comprising mostly of data management issues, public awareness campaigns, use of traditional and indigenous knowledge and research capacity

·       Planning and decision making, particularly integrated policy and legislative frameworks and coordinated planning processes

·       Implementation of decisions and policies, such as project and programme management, resource allocation, and translating strategies into concrete deliverables

·       Monitoring and evaluation to feed back lessons learned into the national environmental management system.

Q 20: Who is following up on NCSA results and
  recommendations?

A:     The main target group for the NCSA Action Plan and Report are national stakeholders involved in environmental management. Many follow-up activities to the NCSA can be implemented with no or little additional resources and require no or minimal external assistance. Among these are coordination efforts among environmental agencies to improve data gathering and information exchange, reducing overlapping mandates and responsibilities, involvement of private businesses and NGO in project and policy planning, etc.

Other areas, such as improving regulatory frameworks, strengthening implementation procedures etc. can be supported by external partners. Among those, the GEF is one of many. Bilateral development cooperation agencies, regional organizations and international agencies are all stressing the importance of coherent approaches, integrated planning and capacity development to support project and programme implementation. They all should be regarded as main audience for the NCSA results and potential partners in implementing its findings.

Q 21: How can one NCSA learn from each other?

A:     The best way to learn from one another is to stay in constant contact, exchange lessons learned and documents produced.

·   &n