Scoping Advice for the Dutch IWRM Support Programme Rwanda

5. Terms of Reference for SEAIn the following paragraphs, terms of reference will be provided for the SEAs. The NCEA expectsthese ToR to be used as individual guidance documents for each specific SEA. At times, therefore,some information from the previous chapters has been repeated in order to make the ToRunderstandable as ‘stand-alone’ documents.5.1 ToR for SEA for the EKN’s IWRM support programmeIntroductionThe Rwanda Water Resources Department (RWRD) is making significant progress in theformulation and operationalisation of its IWRM policy. The EKN intends to support the RWRD in thefurther development and implementation of IWRM in Rwanda. The initial intention was to providesupport on three components, i.e. (i) water resources assessment and monitoring (WRAM), (ii)capacity development, and (iii) (pilot) watershed rehabilitation.It is observed that RWRD through its Master Plan process is already developing a water resourcesmanagement information system (MIS), highly comparable to a WRAM system. To avoidduplication of efforts, the focus of attention of EKN could therefore better lie on assuring thequality of the MIS system presently under design and supporting the RWRD in developing thecapacity (institutional, staff and equipment) to implement and operate this MIS.The consequence is that likely, the EKN’s IWRM support programme can be reduced to two maincomponents:1. Institutional and capacity development for IWRM in Rwanda2. IWRM implementation at catchment levelHowever, the MIS is presently under design and not operational yet. The assessment of its qualityand functionally could result in gaps that would need to be addressed and which could be takenup by the EKN in its IWRM Support Programme. Whether this would merit a separate component ornot depends on the nature of these gaps and needs to be determined. Therefore the followingsequence of SEA steps is proposed to guarantee maximal coherence between the Rwanda IWRMpolicy, the Master Plan process and the EKN support programme:- Formulate EKN Support programme: the SEA process will be integrated into the EKN supportprogramme formulation process, so that this formulation process becomes ‘SEA-proof’. Thisjoint SEA/formulation process for the EKN water sector support programme has to be carriedout parallel to the Master Plan process. While the formulation can start right away, for optimalcoordination the final decision on the EKN’s IWRM support programme should ideally bebased on a finalised and formally accepted Master Plan. During the implementation of thesupport programme the SEA process can be continued to inform the programme wheneverstrategic choices need to be made. Some flexibility in the formulation (such as phasing:starting with capacity development component while waiting with the catchment level27