VEHA
Guidance
Guidance
Virtual Environmental and Humanitarian Adviser Tool – (VEHA Tool) is a tool
to easily integrate environmental considerations in humanitarian response. Field Implementation guidances are useful for the design and execution of humanitarian activities in the field.
Accountability to communities is fundamental to the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) and for gathering important feedback on whether WASH activities are making people more or less environmentally resilient. Accountability mechanisms can help to understand and respond to community concerns regarding natural resources, environmental fragilities, and hazards. Feedback can be used to change or strengthen the environmental sustainability of WASH activities. Feedback can also be used to inform the content of IEC resources on developing more environmentally sustainable WASH responses.
Involving and being accountable to the affected communities by following inclusive, participatory and accountable procedures, is also standard good practice in information management at response or local level. This includes careful data protection based on principles of confidentiality, privacy, and security and at all times ensures the protection of the displaced population.
Members of the humanitarian response should be trained by gender, protection, and GBV specialists so that everyone knows their role and good practices.
Training should ensure that team members understand appropriate ways to engage with communities, possible sensitivities they might face, and how to respond to them. This also allows for practical awareness and effective communication with disabled persons.
Air pollution
Soil pollution
Water pollution
Deforestation
Desertification
Eutrophication
Climate Change
Loss of biodiversity and ecosystems
Natural Resource Depletion
Soil erosion
Noise pollution
Visual Intrusion
Increased intensity of storms / hurricanes
Increased drought / flood
Community accountability and engagement improves understanding of environmental vulnerabilities, hazards, risks, impacts, and dependencies. This includes:
1. Understanding WASH requirements and potential environmental impacts or vulnerabilities
2. Understanding what resources people are using for WASH
3. Assessing what environmental resources are available and being used and any potential conflict over resources
4. Understanding community environmental dependencies and fragilities
5. Learning about environmental coping strategies and recovery strategies
6. Understanding existing sources and causes of pollution and pollution causing behaviors
7. Obtaining feedback about the impacts of WASH activities on the environment
8. Feedback about environmental hazards and risks
9. Feedback about the changing impacts of climate change.
Accountability to communities and engagement using a range of communication channels creates many opportunities to understand environmental vulnerabilities, hazards, risks, and impact and to use this information to strengthen the environmental sustainability of WASH activities and also strengthen the ways in which communities engage with and protect the environment upon which they depend. This includes:
1. Understanding people’s WASH requirements during a crisis and collating information on how this may impact or be vulnerable to the environment
2. Understanding what the resources people are using for WASH
3. Assessing what environmental resources are available and being used
4. Understanding community environmental dependencies and fragilities at different WASH facility locations and surrounding areas
5. Learning about community environmental coping strategies and recovery strategies, such as unsustainable use of natural resources
6. Understanding existing sources and causes of pollution and pollution causing behaviors/social norms
7. Obtaining feedback about the impacts of WASH activities on the environment. Continued local community engagement should contribute to the overall success of recovery and reconstruction efforts
8. Feedback about environmental hazards and risks communities are facing
9. Feedback about the changing impacts of climate change.
Accountability and community engagement mechanisms should be designed to include environment, including:
1. Consultation on WASH needs and information on how they may impact or be vulnerable to the environment. Ensure that chosen communication channels are widely accessible by different groups of the community
2. Consultation on resources being used for WASH so that these can be addressed in WASH activities. Educate people on alternative more sustainable materials or improved WASH designs
3. Assess what environmental resources are available for use. Use this to anticipate resource-scarcity conflicts
4. Community consultation on environmental dependencies and fragilities at different WASH locations and surrounding areas, identifying potential support
5. Consultation on community environmental coping strategies, traditional knowledge, and recovery strategies
6. Consultation on sources and causes of pollution and pollution causing behaviors/social norms. Using these to inform the design of awareness campaigns and behavior change practices where appropriate
7. Accountability regarding the impacts of WASH activities on the environment
8. Feedback from and accountability to communities regarding environmental hazards and risks and responses
9. Feedback about the changing impacts of climate change such as increased temperature extremes, rainfall intensity or storm intensity.
Accountability and community engagement mechanisms should be designed to include environment, including:
1. Assess people’s WASH needs during a crisis and collate information on how this may impact or be vulnerable to the environment, so that this information can be used to strengthen the environmental sustainably of WASH infrastructure design and ensure it is resilient to environmental hazards. Ensure that chosen communication channels are widely accessible by different groups of the community;
2. Understand the resources people are using for WASH
3. Assess what environmental resources are available for use
4. Understand community environmental dependencies and fragilities at different WASH locations and surrounding areas, this may include cultural and heritage uses for land; agricultural use; use for supplementary food or herbal medicines. Communities can then be supported appropriately such as negotiating land tenure agreements; establishing agreed sustainable conservation practices; protecting vulnerable areas
5. Learn about community environmental coping strategies and recovery strategies, such as dependencies on vulnerable flora or fauna, such as the capture and sale of endangered species, dependencies on cutting timber, or abstracting other resources to supplement household income.
6. Understand existing sources and causes of pollution and pollution causing behaviors / social norms such as waste piling and burning, open defecation, slash and burn land clearance. Some practical and behavioral factors may be difficult to address through communication and may require more experiential learning, such that which may occur in a workshop or training where participants get to practice a construction technique and receive feedback. Preferences for and access to communication channels may also be different by ethnicity, socio-economic status, geographical differences, and gender. Develop training and workshops for the agency’s staff and the local community on the environmental risks and impacts identified to orient daily behavior regarding soil preservation, water consumption, energy-saving benefits, etc.
7. Obtain feedback about the impacts of WASH activities on the environment, such as cutting off drainage channels, depleting natural resources, causing flooding or fire risk, or lack of cultural acceptance. Establish a schedule for in-place group activities and choose environmental themes to be discussed in some of these activities. While some environmental impacts may not have been estimated on the onset of the response, they can be developed and such conversation circles can act as a feedback mechanism;
8. Feedback about environmental hazards and risks communities are facing such as landslides, floods, droughts, disease spread, crop pests, and diseases. Develop community-led projects to address priority environmental risks, which complement the work.
9. Feedback about the changing impacts of climate change such as increased temperature extremes, rainfall intensity, or storm intensity.
Resource mobilization and fundraising does not have to be restricted to the financial assets determined in your RM strategy. The case study below showing an example of how in-kind contributions after the Indian Ocean earthquake of 26 December 2004 fulfilled the goal of Build Back Better.
“The earthquake reached a 9.3 on the Richter scale and the ensuing Tsunami affected about a dozen nations and resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties, jeopardized livelihoods of the survivors and destroyed their source of income, fishing. After an intensive process of identifying recipients and with international donations, FAO delivered a variety of fishing equipment to help restructure damaged fishing vessels and enable fishermen to go back out to sea, return to their craft and ensure food security in many communities. By providing in-kind contributions, FAO was able to enable the local population to conduct their own recovery activities and even reach productivity levels superior to those prior to the tsunami.”
Refer to –
http://www.fao.org/3/i2699e/i2699e00.pdf https://eecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/factsheet_IKI_Nov2019.pdf
Major findings of the research are: SEA allows finding completely new solutions SEA allows avoiding errors SEA allows avoiding conflicts https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/eia/documents/SEA_CBNA/Georgia_manual_en.pdf
% of local communities participation in in-place training and workshops;
# of sector activities led by affected communities
# of tensions/conflicts and disruptions resulting from sector activities being identified and solved during the project life.
Mitigation of environmental damage;
Environmental enhancement.
Communications channels and constant flow of information between humanitarian respondents and local communities;
In-place technical workshops and training, to booster community engagement;
Information exchange sessions;
Humanitarian capacity to assess best methods of community engagement, identify obstacles to the general surveying of the affected population;
Basic resources as far as information dissemination are concerned;
Establishment of a feedback cycle and mechanism to monitor response success throughout its lifecycle.