Services to the Environmental, Social and Resettlement Due Diligence Program for the Nepal Compact

This includes providing two key types of services
i) To provide advice to the US-based MCC team on environmental and social due diligence, and
ii) To support MCC in providing technical assistance to the Nepal teams who are preparing the projects and who will be responsible for compliance with Nepal’s national environmental and social laws and regulations and MCC environmental and social guidelines which incorporate the IFC Performance Standards.

In this context, SW Nepal was contracted as a local partner to AECOM to support them with the two above mentioned tasks.
This mainly included providing two types of services to the AECOM environmental and social due diligence international core team :
i) Subject matter support e.g. secondary data collection; review and documentation of data and information, setting up and participation in meetings with key stakeholders, compilation of meeting notes; interpretation during field visits and other tasks as deemed necessary, and
ii) Logistics support such as travel and accommodation arrangements for the core team, providing work and meeting space and related facilities, office supplies (including printing) and IT requirements etc.

The objective of Technical Directive 3 (TD 3) for the option year I are to support in preparation of detailed Terms of Reference and Scoping Document for domestic Nepali Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) consultant services. This further extends to support in the identification and preparation of necessary Project Partnership Agreements relevant for Environmental and Social Practice (ESP) tasks during the ESIA and RAP process

In the context to TD 3 for the option year I, SW Nepal undertook the following activities to meet the objectives.

Revise/update ToR for Nepali EIA- that complies with Nepal’s regulations and requirements, and that also aligns with the proposed process for completing full ESIA
Provide support information for ToR for Forest Clearance Plan, Social Impact Assessment and Resettlement Action Plan (RAP)SW Nepal was also engaged in a field visit to Hetauda, Bharatpur and Lumbini

Scott Wilson Nepal also provided local oversight and project management services to enable smooth delivery by international experts.