Environmental and Social Audit of Sub-Projects

Project Description

Under the component one, Agriculture and Rural Business Development, PACT assists agribusinesses agro-enterprises, commodity associations, cooperatives, registered farmer groups/organizations and technology and service providers to actively engage in the development of commodity value chains by partially financing demand-driven investment proposals through competitive matching grants. Since environmental and social impacts of subprojects under PACT may vary in the extent, magnitude and duration as per the nature and scale of the subprojects, contents and their location, the potential subprojects to be financed require proper screening and assessment against the set environmental and social criteria, which will determine the extent and type of environmental and social assessment needed and mitigation measures included appropriately. Hence, as a policy guideline, PACT has developed Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) to be used as a decision-making tool to ensure that all the subprojects selected and implemented under PACT are systematically assessed. The framework demands that each subproject will require environmental and social assessment. The ESMF recognizes the need for early environmental and social consideration and mainstreaming these aspects throughout implementation phase. The ESMF will be applied during implementation so that any environmental and social impacts likely to arise would be identified early in each subproject, appropriately incorporated in subproject detailed proposals and satisfactorily managed during implementation. The project area comprises 25 Terai and Hill districts of four Development Regions of Nepal namely, Central, Western, Mid-western and Far-western Regions.

For Call-1, six thematic areas were covered (Vegetable, Cereal seed, Potato Seed, Fish, Ginger and Floriculture) in 15 sub-projects. Similarly, for Call-2, fourteen thematic areas were covered (Vegetable, Cereal seed, Honey, Fish, Ginger, Floriculture, Meat Processing, Poultry, Milk Processing, Mushroom, Animal Feeds, Hides and Skins, Coffee Processing and Fodder) in 40 sub-projects. Lastly, for Call-3, twenty thematic areas were covered (Vegetable, Milk and Milk Product, Meat Animal Promotion, Poultry, Cereal seed, Meat Processing, Animal Feed, Banana, Citrus, Coffee, Ginger, Fish, Honey, Onion, Table Potato, Lentil, Floriculture, Meat and Meat Product and Mushroom) in 55 sub-projects

Assignment Description

The overall purpose of the consultancy service is to undertake annually third party independent environmental and social audits (IESA) of sub-projects implemented under PACT's competitive matching grant. Specifically, the consultant carried out the following tasks: • Assess the existing social conditions comparing the pre-project situation in terms of inclusiveness • Determine social impacts of the PACT subprojects on historical, archaeological, religious, cultural & aesthetic and other restricted areas, assets, structures, utilities and livelihood • List all possible social impacts due to subprojects implementation and suggests project/planners to minimize or eliminate these impacts • Review sub-projects receiving project competitive matching grant from environmental and social dimensions and issues, and advise PMT, if these have been appropriately characterized as per project's ESMF • Examine specific issues relevant to the social responsibility and the environmental impact of PACT's sub-projects • Assess whether the sub-projects have appropriately followed environmental and social mitigation measures and suggest follow-up actions to the grant recipients, sub_x001f_project managers, regional technical support group, technical support group and Assist RTSG and TSG to apply ESMF within value chain development plans (VCDPs), • Review the environmental management plan and code of environmental practices prepared by the grant recipients and suggest necessary amendments • Verify compliance with environmental requirements of GoN and WB • Assess the implementation status of the environment management plan, environmental code of practices and initial environmental examination (IEE) • Assess risk from regulated and unregulated practices • Suggested RTSG, TSG, PMT and grant recipients to implement project's ESMF further effectively • Identify any problem areas and draw attention of the concerned parties on such issues • Identify the remedial issues and suggest corrective measures and action plan for improvement with time frames and responsibilities • Preparation and submission of Inception, Draft and Final Reports