About ENCAP

 

ENCAP in brief

ENCAP, a program of USAID Africa Bureau’s Office of Sustainable Development, provides tools, resources, technical assistance and capacity building to USAID’s Africa Missions and partners to strengthen environmental management and environmental compliance. ENCAP tools and guidance are freely available to Mission staff and partners via this website.

ENCAP technical assistance, training and other services are described below. They are available to Missions on a subsidized basis, with Missions providing a cost-share or in-kind contribution. Missions may also engage ENCAP program partners directly, via Task Order buy-in or direct contracts.

 

ENCAP Services for USAID’s Africa Missions and Their Partners

ENCAP provides three different types of technical assistance to strengthen environmental management and compliance. Follow the links to learn more.”

 


ENCAP Services: Technical support to Missions

  • Assistance in conducting Mission Environmental Compliance Best Practices Reviews (BPRs). A BPR identifies gaps in Mission environmental compliance, develops an Action Plan to address these gaps, and usually includes short staff trainings.

  • Assistance in implementing BPR Action Plans.

  • Assistance in incorporating partner environmental compliance responsibilities into procurement instruments.

  • Design and evaluation of Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plans for compliance with Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) and Environmental Assessment (EA) conditions.

  • Development and review of Reg. 216 documentation, including IEEs, PERSUAPs, and EAs.

  • Development of sub-project environmental review processes for small grant programs and associated training as required by “umbrella IEEs.”

  • Support for integrated pest management (IPM), safer pesticide use and
    compliance with USAID’s pesticide procedures.

  • Preparation of FAA 118/9 (Environmental Threats and Opportunities) Assessments.

  • Conduct of environmental due diligence in support of GDA activities.

  • Program design and evaluation support to incorporate environmental oncerns and Reg. 216 compliance, including application of environmental voluntary standards, cleaner production, corporate social responsibility codes and standards, and other approaches to greening business and trade.

And other technical assistance available upon request.

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ENCAP Services: Training Courses

ENCAP delivers a variety of training courses for USAID and partner staff. Course summaries, presentations and materials are available at www.encapafrica.org.

  • IEE Preparation/Sub-Project Environmental Review: The “Environmental Assessment and Environmentally Sound Design and Management” (EA-ESDM) course is a 4–5 day, field-focused training for USAID partner organizations. It teaches basic EA skills, how to apply these skills to the development of IEEs or sub-project environmental reviews required by USAID Environmental Procedures, and how to integrate the EA into project design and implementation to improve project outcomes.

  • Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring for IEE/EA Compliance: The new, 4-day, field-focused “Life of Project Environmental Compliance and Environmentally Sound Design and Management” course focuses on implementation of mitigation measures required by EAs and IEEs. The course is designed to improve environmental compliance and project outcomes by training USAID staff and partners to translate IEE conditions into EMMPs, integrate them into their workplans, and monitor the results.

  • Improving Success Rates for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with Cleaner Production: This 3–4 day field-focused training targets business development services (BDS) providers serving SMEs. It focuses on building basic Cleaner
    Production (CP) skills to (1) identify inefficiencies in SME production processes and (2) evaluate the business case for options to reduce these inefficiencies. The result is reduced waste and improved profitability and environmental performance.

  • IPM, Safer Pesticide Use, Pesticides Compliance, and Food Standards: This 2–3 day training is highly customized to the crops and export markets most relevant to participants. It addresses IPM and safer pesticide use in the context of compliance with USAID Pesticide Procedures and key food/agricultural standards for export markets.

  • Other trainings and custom course development: ENCAP can deliver other courses on topics of interest such as: Voluntary Standards in the Environment Sector (e.g., organic certification, ISO requirements, EurepGAP, etc.); a one day primer course on “Enterprise, Trade, and Environment;” a short course on implementing the Environmental Compliance Language for USAID procurement instruments; and Training-of- Trainers versions of any ENCAP course.

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ENCAP Services: Support to Strengthen Host country Environmental Management Capacity

Effective host country environmental management processes and institutions are critical to many USAID activities, including GDA and DCA activities. ENCAP can provide targeted technical assistance to help host country governments assess and improve their environmental review and compliance procedures, including: institutional assessment, strategic support, capacity building to improve effectiveness in EIA review and follow-up, and identifying measures to improve the financial sustainability of environmental management agencies.

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To request ENCAP assistance, contact your Regional Environmental Advisor

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More about ENCAP

ENCAP was initiated in 1994/95, and is now implemented via the EPIQ II Environmental Policy and Institutional Strengthening Indefinite Quantity Contract.

The USAID supervisory office is AFR/SD/EGEA (Africa Bureau, Office of Sustainable Development, Economic Growth, Agriculture and Environment Division.

The International Resources Group, Ltd. is the ENCAP prime contractor. The Cadmus Group, Inc. is the technical lead.

Visit the contacts page for information about the ENCAP Core Team. Contact us at encapinfo@cadmusgroup.com.


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This web site was made possible through support provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Africa Office of Sustainable Development, under the terms of Contract No. EPP-I-00-03-00013-00, Task Order No.7. The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and may not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government. To read ENCAP's Privacy Policy, click here.