Principles for Reviewing Environmental Impact Assessments (PREIA) - Excellence

Our people are committed and passionate about improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean, and they get to do what they love in a diverse, collaborative and stimulating work environment. At the IDB, we’re committed to improving lives. Since 1959, we’ve been a leading source of long-term financing for economic, social, and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. We do more than lending though. We partner with our 48-member countries to provide Latin America and the Caribbean with cutting-edge research about relevant development issues, policy advice to inform their decisions, and technical assistance to improve on the planning and execution of projects. For this, we need people who not only have the right skills but also are passionate about improving lives.

Learning objectives/outcomes

Having undertaken this course, participants will now be able to:

• Using a summary diagram, describe the stages of the EIA process to support the review process and decision making
• Through analysis of the legal, institutional, organizational, and personal context, understand the reviewer’s role and approach to participating in the stages of the EIA review process and decision making
• Apply the reviewer’s approach to analyze and interpret each element of an EIA document to determine the level of compliance or conformity with the applicable rules, standards, or best practices
• Synthesize the results of the review of the project’s environmental impact by evaluating the EIA document and communicating clearly with different audiences
• Recognize the different contexts of EIA review in Latin American and Caribbean countries, to incorporate specific knowledge and best practices in different settings

Sectors (AcademiaBID)

Environmental Social Risk Management

Learning experience and activities

Tutor-led Course that includes:

• Reviewing documents, audios, and videos -A group exercise, with a real case scenario throughout various weeks
• Activities corrected by the tutor
• Debate forums and round tables
• Voluntary live sessions (chat and videoconferencing) with the tutor for academic questions
• Final learning assessment test

Course content

The Course has five modules that cover the following topics:

• Module 1. Reviewer’s Roles and Responsibilities in the EIA Process
• Modules 2 and 3. The Environmental Impact Assessment Process
  • Approaches to review: what to look for when reading an Evaluation Impact Assessment
  • EIA scope
  • Describing the environmental scenario
  • Analysis of project alternatives
  • Description of the environmental setting
  • Establishing the baseline
  • Social context
  • Potential environmental impact
  • Mitigation and monitoring measures: the Environmental and Social Management Plan
  • Mitigation hierarchy
• Module 4. Preparing and communicating the reviewer comments
  • Final report
• Module 5. Reviewer resources by country

Assessment

This credential is awarded after successfully completing the following activities associated with each module:

• M0. Café forum for participant introduction
• M1. Forum: Importance of EIA and the EIA process
• M2. Forum: Approaches to revision
• M2. Group. Project revisions and baseline
• M3. Forum: Environmental impact and impact mitigation
• M3. Group. Description of environmental and social scenario, environmental impact, and impact mitigation
• M4. Group. Preparing and communicating reviewer’s comments
• M4. Forum: Final report
• M5. Forum: Resources and experiences with EIA
• M5. Forum. Specific applications to each country

Assessment criteria

• All activities are mandatory. Participant may not deliver up to two activities throughout the entire course, which are evaluated with 0
• Minimum average score of 90/100 required in all scored activities. All activities have the same weight
• All activities are evaluated by the tutor, except for the coffee forum and the post course questionnaire
• Participants must complete a final questionnaire to assess the knowledge acquired (post course test)
• In group activities, the tutor may value the effort of the group members differently, based on the group chats, either in the virtual classroom or through external channels (WhatsApp, Teams, Google Docs, etc.).

Estimated learning effort

The course takes six weeks to complete, with an average effort of up to 10 hours per weeks, for a total of 60 h.

Badge type

Assessment badge

*This credential is equivalent to the previous version.