Mainstreaming SEA in water and environmental sanitation in Ghana

Building the capacity of sector practitioners in applying Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to water and environmental sanitation policies, plans, programmes (PPPs) is a pre-requisite to meeting MDG 7, Target 9. In Ghana, SEA has been applied to the process of developing a new National Water Policy and revising an existing Environmental Sanitation Policy and in the process stakeholders appreciation of SEA and capacity to use derived tools has been enhanced. This paper presents a number of key elements of applying SEA to water and environmental sanitation PPPs, the drivers for mainstreaming SEA in all sectors and challenges of institutionalisation the use of the SEA tools that have been developed.