Social and Environmental Assessment to Promote Sustainability : An Informal View from the World Bank

Social and Environmental Assessment to Promote Sustainability : An Informal View from the World Bank

This report compares the history of Environmental Assessment (EA) and Social Assessment (SA) in the World Bank, in order to draw "lessons learned" to improve development. The main need-to shift attention from the EA report to implementati...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Goodland, Robert
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	SOCIAL ASSESSMENTS ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT PROCESS SOCIAL CAPITAL HUMAN CAPITAL NATURAL CAPITAL PUBLIC CONSULTATION PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPS SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT VIOLENCE RESEARCH ADAPTATION AGED AID AIR AIR POLLUTION ASSIMILATIVE CAPACITY CIVIL SOCIETY CLINICS COAL COMMON PROPERTY COST EFFECTIVENESS COUNTRY LEVEL DEBT DEFORESTATION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES DEVELOPMENT IMPACTS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS ECONOMIC COOPERATION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMISTS ENERGY EFFICIENCY ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE ENVIRONMENTAL GUIDELINES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ETHNIC MINORITIES EXPENDITURES EXPORTS EXTERNALITIES FORESTRY FORMAL PUBLICATIONS GREEN ACCOUNTING HEALTH AFFAIRS HEALTH CARE HOUSING IMPACT ASSESSMENT INCOME INFLATION INFORMATION DISCLOSURE INTEREST RATES INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS IRON LENDING PROGRAM MACROECONOMICS MALNUTRITION MANAGEMENT CAPACITY MANAGERS MICROECONOMICS NATURAL RESOURCES NUTRITION OIL OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES PARTICIPATORY POVERTY PARTICIPATORY POVERTY ASSESSMENTS PARTNERSHIP POLICY DOCUMENTS POLICY REVIEW POLLUTION POLLUTION CONTROL POVERTY ALLEVIATION PRIORITIES PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC PARTICIPATION REAL TERMS RECYCLING RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT RETIREMENT SAFETY SAFETY NETS SAPS SECTOR POLICY SHORT TERM SOCIAL ANALYSIS SOCIAL COSTS SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL DIMENSIONS SOCIAL ISSUES SOCIAL JUSTICE SOCIAL MAP SOCIAL POLICIES SOCIAL POLICY SOCIAL SCIENTISTS SOCIAL SECTORS STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT SUSTAINABILITY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TEAM WORK TRADE LIBERALIZATION UNEMPLOYMENT VIOLENCE VULNERABLE GROUPS VIOLENCE RESEARCH ADAPTATION
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2000/01/693171/social-environmental-assessment-promote-sustainability-informal-view-world-bank http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18295

Description
Summary:	This report compares the history of Environmental Assessment (EA) and Social Assessment (SA) in the World Bank, in order to draw "lessons learned" to improve development. The main need-to shift attention from the EA report to implementation on the ground-has been started recently (Goodland and Mercier 1999), so this paper focuses on process. The history of social and economic assessments shows how scarce social and natural capital is being converted to abundant economic capital. The EA and SA processes are examined to see the extent to which they could promote sustainability, the maintenance of capital. This means social and economic assessments can be used to prevent inadvertent consumption of natural and social capital. Following a historical section, there is a brief but more theoretical section on the substitutability between the four main forms of capital and their relevance to achieving the goal of sustainability by means of improved social and economic assessments.