About NCSA Project

The issue of capacity building has become a major priority to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), within the global conventions and the international community as a whole. Bangladesh is a signatory to a number of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) including the Rio Conventions on biological diversity, climate change and desertification. However, the country’s capacities at different levels to implement these conventions are limited. It is considered appropriate to build capacity of the country while the Rio Conventions are in different stages of implementation. Need is also felt to enhance the technical capacity of the country to take part in the global negotiation processes and link decisions taken at the global level to matching actions at the country level. Given the competing demands and obligatory activities besides reporting requirements and monitoring of MEAs, Bangladesh appreciates a one stop capacity assessment and Capacity development programme. Identifying capacity building needs at all the three levels (individual, institutional and systemic) and strengthening existing capacities are urgently needed. At the same time, it is equally important for Bangladesh to retain its capacities built over a period of time. The GEF's Capacity Development Initiative is a welcome option to carry out National Capacity Self Assessments (NCSA) of capacity needs and develop Capacity Development Action Plan (CDAP) for implementation in Bangladesh.

In this perspective, Bangladesh received a fund for PDF-A from GEF /UNDP. The present NCSA Project is the outcome of the PDF-A phase. The project is being funded by the GEF/UNDP and implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) with the technical support of IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Bangladesh Country Office. With a view to developing capacity building in Bangladesh for global environmental management, the NCSA Project was approved by the GEF on 12 November 2004 for a period of 16 months. The PRODOC was signed between the Government of Bangladesh and UNDP on 29 December 2005.  The MOEF approved the Technical Project Proposal (TPP) on 18 September 2005 for implementation of the project commencing from February 2006.

The primary objective of the GEF-supported window on National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA) is to identify country level capacity building needs and priorities for global environmental management. The aim of NCSA is to provide Bangladesh with the opportunity to identify priority capacity needs in order to effectively address crosscutting global environmental issues. This enabling activity is to conduct a country-driven self-assessment and develop a strategy and action plan for capacity building in the environmental sector of the country. This project will enable the country to develop a plan of action to achieve global environmental management objectives in the context of the three conventions relevant for NCSA: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The focus of this project is to capture the concerns related to critical capacity constraints for implementing the MEAs; formulate strategic plan how to develop national capacity for thematic issues as well as issues that cut across focal areas; increase awareness on various issues with regard to national capacity for the MEAs; and link past and ongoing activities for the MEAs with overall national development policies.

The Bangladesh NCSA will be a living document which will be prepared through an extensive consultative process. It will be a national document owned by the people. The concerned ministries/divisions, Government department / agencies, research organizations, academics from the universities, civil societies, NGOs, development partners, experts, environmental practioners, press as well as electronic media and other relevant stakeholders would be involved in this process. Both the top-down and bottom-up approaches would be followed during the preparation of NCSA. The first step for preparation of a significant document is to determine the methodology. This has been accomplished through the Inception workshop held on 30 July 2006. The next step will be to conduct thematic group meetings with the expertise knowledgeable persons and focused group meetings with the end users at the field level and other stakeholders. Public opinion on the NCSA will be sought through website and media. At the middle of the project period, a draft NCSA report would be prepared and placed in the mid-term national workshop. After receiving recommendations from the workshop, the NCSA document will be revised. A peer group will be formed to scrutinize the laps and gaps of the capacity needs under the Rio conventions. Time to time development of the NCSA preparation stages will be informed to the Project Steering Committee (PSC) to get its feedback. The input of International Consultant and National Consultants will be taken during the preparation of NCSA. The key policy-makers particularly the Honourable Ministers, State Ministers of the concerned ministries and Hon’ble Member of the Parliament would be involved to ensure political commitment on the NCSA process. The draft final NCSA document would be submitted to the final national workshop for vetting. Finally it would be placed to the PSC for approval. A detailed and time-bound road map for processing NCSA has been prepared in this respect. According to this road map, at least three meetings of PSC and STC each will be held during life time of the project. Mid-term workshop will be held at the middle of the project period and Final workshop will be held at the end where the draft and the final NCSA Report will be placed respectively.