Resource information
This staff sector assessment note
accompanies the recently completed national environmental
action plan for sustainable development (NEAP-SD), which, as
an output of the Industrial Pollution Control Project in
Algeria, focused on charting a new course for environmental
management in the country, based on an objective assessment
of past policy, and institutional failures, on a new
consensus on the need for mainstreaming the environment into
economic management, and sectoral policies, and, on the
implementation of a priority action plan, fully integrated
with the government three-year economic revival program. The
social cost of environmental degradation is already quite
significant, and will continue to increase if policies,
institutional, and investment measures are not provided. The
NEAP-SD serves as a vehicle for building bridges with
non-governmental organizations, and donors, and enhance the
prospects for improved coordination, as well as helping
inform the ongoing process of Country Assistance Strategy
(CAS). Recommendations suggest the use of high impact
strategic lending, with contributions supporting water and
wastewater, urban, and rural development, including natural
resource management, incorporating environmental objectives,
but focused on fundamental challenges that address public
sector efficiency and governance, private sector
development, and water management, through partnerships
focused on flexible responsiveness, in an approach to
integrate the environment into the Bank's instruments,
building capacity, and strengthening environmental, and
institutional assistance.
