The National Environment Agency will today, Wednesday, March 11 2009, wrap-up a three-day training session for senior government officials and policy makers on strategic environment assessment at the Kairaba Beach Hotel.

The training is designed to equip policy makers to get to know  more about environmental concerns. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the session earlier on Monday, Momodou B Sarr, executive director of NEA, recalled that environmental impact assessment has been routinely applied as required under the National Environment Management Act (NEMA) since the creation of the NEA in 1993. "But EIA is different from strategic environment assessment (SEA)," he said.

He said that SEA is a new environment assessment undertaken to analyse environmental effects of government proposed policies, plans, programs and other strategic actions. The findings of the SEA, he added "are then integrated in the decision making for policy makers."

Limya Eliayeb who spoke on behalf of the UNDP representative in The Gambia, noted that the meeting is timely and important as it will update decision makers on environment issues at this critical time. She also spoke at length about the UNDP's country action plan, which, she said, puts environment and climate charge at its core. She underscored the significance of SEA in providing direct support to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Gwen Van Bouen, representative of the Netherlands Commission for environmental Assessment, spoke at length about the activities of her commission. She said that since 1993, they have had a grant from their government to assist and advise the developing countries on EIA and SEA.