The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) secretariat to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) and its Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (Protocol on SEA) provides technical advice and capacity-building to support Armenia in developing its strategic environmental assessment (SEA) system in line with the Convention and its Protocol. The support includes the provision of two training workshops on SEA in the framework of the European Union-funded “European Union for Environment” (EU4Environment) programme (2019 – 2024).

This Training Workshop 2 builds on Training Workshop 1 delivered on 30-31 October 2023 and will raise awareness and build capacities of the national stakeholders on such key elements of SEA as strategic policy and objective-led analysis, assessment of effects, development of mitigation measures and monitoring proposals, reviewing the quality of SEA reports, consideration of the SEA recommendations in the strategic planning document and decision making. The event is organized by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Armenia in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and facilitated by the international and national SEA consultants to the UNECE.

Training workshop’s objectives, expected outputs and outcomes

The objectives of the events are to:

• raise awareness and build capacities of national sectoral planning authorities, regional planning authorities, local self-governing bodies, and other stakeholders in Armenia about the analytical approaches used in SEA concept, development of mitigation and monitoring proposals, reviewing the quality of SEA reports, consideration of the SEA recommendations in the strategic planning document and decision making, and aspects to be considered when developing terms of reference for SEA.
• raise awareness and build capacities of sectoral planning authorities, decision-makers, local self-governing bodies, and other stakeholders in Armenia about SEA process according to:
  • the amended national legislation on SEA;
  • the Protocol on SEA to the Convention of Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) and SEA Directive 2001/42/EC;
• to enhance the capacities of the training workshop participants in undertaking the assessment and quality review during the SEA process using practical exercises.

Participants

The workshop will gather up to 35 participants from the sectoral ministries, specialised divisions of the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Health, regional planning authorities, local self-government authorities, and representatives of civil society.