Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to identify those parts of the world where social impact assessment is required and what organizations, institutions and laws there are in place to carry out and enforce SIA practice. Some conclusions are drawn about expanding SIA practice. To accomplish this purpose we contacted practitioners in countries where large mineral, water, petroleum and construction related projects were likely to take place or countries with private sector companies doing the exploration and development. We asked the following questions:
1. Does your country, state, province or other governmental unit have legislation that requires Environmental Impact Assessments—e.g., NEPA style legislation?
2. If they answered yes to the first question…” is there wording in the legislation to include the social impacts on the human environment or human communities?”
3. Are there specific agencies or governmental organizations that have a specific requirement to do social impact assessment? If yes, which ones?
If there are specific requirements to do social impact assessment, how are the regulations or requirements enforced, e.g., terms of references, to obtain a permit or by legally enforceable legislation? Many countries now have some type of environmental policy legislation modeled after the original National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) legislation. We also received responses from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Community (EU), the Canadian International Development Administration (CIDA) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).