Safeguards

While the safeguards and standards of different agencies are increasingly harmonized, some differences remain and countries are sometimes faced with the challenge of having to adhere to several sets of standards at once.

AAE and associated consultants provide thorough expertise in the application and harmonization of different social and environmental safeguards and standards, such as GCF/IFC, UNFCCC Cancun, UNDP, UNEP, GEF, AF, WB and CI. As needed, specific thematic experts are included in our tailor-made teams, such as legal experts or experts on gender and IP rights.

Services offered

• Development of methodologies to assess risks and benefits of activities in line with more than one set of safeguards/standards.
• Identification of potential risks and benefits of planned activities or policies under development (e.g. through Social and Environmental Strategic Assessment or Risk Assessment), including through in-depth stakeholder engagement.
• Analysis of existing Policies, Laws and Regulations against safeguards requirements, identification of gaps and measures to close such gaps.
• Incorporation of risk and gender assessment findings into processes (e.g. policies under development) and outputs.
• Preparation of Environmental and Social Management Frameworks and Plans, in line with expectations from different donor agencies (e.g. as part of GCF full proposals), and including specific annexed management plans and project-specific Grievance Redress Mechanisms.
• Development of Safeguards Information Systems and REDD+ Summaries of Information.