Looking back, most of the requests made to the DSU can be allotted to three phases of the project cycle. In the preparation phase, expertise is called upon to assist in mainstreaming climate and environment in the formulation of proposals. For the approval phase, the DSU is requested to review whether all sustainable options have been considered, and in the M&E phase the support provided focuses on, for instance, finding effective indicators. In this first newsletter we highlight some examples.
Mainstreaming in the preparation phase: examples from Bangladesh and Mozambique
In Mozambique a DSU climate change and environment expert joined a Dutch expert team formulating a support and investment programme for the Zambezi Valley Agency. For EKN Bangladesh, a desk review was carried out of the climate issues in the “Building Community Resilience Through Integrated Water Management” Programme.
Mainstreaming in the approval phase: Quality@Entry
For the contribution DDE proposed to the Trade Mark East Africa Programme, the DSU executed a quick scan of the environment and climate issues of the proposal. Main findings included the need for sufficient environmental inspection capacity at borders. In addition, an indication was given as to which initiatives would require mandatory environmental assessments under partner country regulation.
Mainstreaming in monitoring and evaluation: institutional sustainability indicators in Kenya
For EKN Kenya, the DSU issued advice in the evaluation of the ASAL programme: support to four Kenyan nature conservation organisations. Focus of the support was operationalisation of the concept of ‘institutional’ sustainability: what does it mean and how to measure it?
Requested by DME, DSU oil & gas and environmental experts reviewed the quality of the report “Protecting the Arctic” by the British House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee. Particularly whether the recommendations in it could be supported by Dutch government policy in international negotiation.
At the request of the EKN Rwanda, the DSU was asked to facilitate a technical workshop concerning the long-term sustainable management and monitoring of Lake Kivu. The lake, situated between Rwanda and DRC is intensively used for fisheries and trade, but also contains vast quantities of dissolved methane and CO2, which are expected to erupt within decades. Due to the potential controversies between Rwanda and DRC neutral facilitation was deemed important. The report will be published soon on the DSU website.
Facilitating more effective collaboration of DSU, NWP and CDKN in supporting embassies in climate mainstreaming, the DSU is currently assessing what kind of support embassies would like to have with regard to climate issues. As a first step this will be done in the six countries where all three institutes already work: Rwanda, Kenya, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Colombia. This assignment is still in preparatory phase. For more information, please contact Ineke Steinhauer.
The above examples focus on one form of support the DSU can provide: quick access to environment and climate expertise. However, the DSU can do more. Specifically mentioned in its ToR is for instance the support to results monitoring, as scheduled for June and another example is the communication, to Dutch Parliament or the public. Please contact us in case of any needs or questions in this regard.
Introducing the DSU team: Kick-off with Arend Kolhoff
In the coming newsletters, the DSU (core) team will be shortly introduced. We start with DSU core team member Arend Kolhoff.
In addition to Arend (49, geographer/ecologist), the head of the department Mr. Rob Verheem and technical secretary Ms. Gwen van Boven, form the DSU core team. Arend has handled and coordinated most of the DSU requests so far. As a specialist in environmental assessment and climate change, Arend has worked for almost 20 years at the NCEA in more than 20 countries. “I am very excited about the DSU facility. I see the added value for embassy staff, especially when it comes to specialised expertise, not always at hand at the embassy posts. When a request reaches our office by mail or phone, we take immediate action. We contact the experts and discuss content in order to send a (draft) version of our advisory report to the requested party as soon as possible.”