The Partnership for the Development of Environmental Laws and Institutions in Africa (PADELIA) is a flagship UNEP pilot project. It is sponsored by Belgium, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands, and it is currently in its second Phase since 2001. [Phase I ran from 1994 to 2000.] PADELIA seeks to support the development of environmental law as well as the corresponding national and regional institutions to ensure effective enforcement. Thirteen States are currently benefiting from the Project, namely: Mozambique, Sao Tome & Principe, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Senegal.
Phase I of PADELIA benefited Mozambique, Sao Tome & Principe, Malawi, and Burkina Faso (which all focused on country-specific issues of environmental law) and East African States (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) (which focused on issues of transboundary environmental law). Now, activities in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda), the Sahel (Mali, Niger, and Senegal), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) (Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland) are directed at issues of sub-regional character with the objective of developing and harmonising laws. While the East Africa sub-regional project has participated in the PADELIA since Phase I, the Sahel and SADC sub-regional projects joined in this Project during the current Phase.
The first important feature of the project is that it is country-driven and highly participatory in nature. Topics for legislation are selected by stakeholders constituted as a National Task Force or Coordinating Committee. Second, the project operationalises the concept of capacity building and has coached nationals on how to identify problems requiring legal intervention and then assisting them in writing the draft laws. Third, the draft laws are subjected to national consensus building workshops and thus enhancing broad public acceptance and ownership. Each of the States during Phase I was able to move at its own pace to reach concrete and quantifiable results. Over 58 draft laws have been developed by the Project countries since 1996.
In addition, the project has conducted and continues to conduct trainings on specific topics, such as Environmental standards; Environmental impact assessment; Judiciary and their role; Legal practitioners on access to environmental justice; Legal protection of biodiversity; Implementation of conventions related to biodiversity; Environmental law theory and practice; General for Environmental law and policy for Lusophone countries; Industrialists; Training by attachment; and Development and harmonisation of laws, to mention but few.
Publications were and are prepared for key areas and have been and continue to be distributed widely. These include a Compendium of environmental laws (10 volumes); Compendium of judicial decisions (4 volumes); Handbook on implementation of environmental conventions; Guidelines for compliance by industries; and procedures for harmonisation of laws in East Africa.
The project is a unique partnership where activities are overseen by an independent inter-agency Steering Committee comprising the The World Bank, UNDP, IUCN, FAO, the donors (see above), UNEP, and an African lawyer representing a neutral African voice. The management of the Project is currently under a Task Manager within UNEP’s Division of Environmental Policy Implementation (DEPI). The partnership has been a unique experience for the agencies themselves.
For more information on PADELIA, see http://www.unep.org/padelia/ or contact padelia.africa@unep.org