J48716 Willend EIA ResearchReport V4 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 20
3.2 | Barriers to furthering digital EIA progress
While this snapshot study was focussed on
opportunities for greater application of digital
approaches and technology in ESIA, there is also a
need to recognise barrier to progress. A number of
barriers have been identified across the interviews
and wider research conducted and these are
outlined below:
- Commitment to Digitisation. There is clear
leadership in the EA Department of FMEnv
to seek to improve the effectiveness of the
Nigerian EIA system through greater application
of digital approaches. This leadership and
ambition, however, does not, yet, appear to be
fully supported in the way the department is
funded and its opportunities to recruit staff,
which remain oriented to its current ways of
working. Further to this, there is a need for far
greater collaboration and investment in digitised
environmental and socially related data sets
across Government at all levels – Federal to
Local. Such progress will be gradual, but it
will take far more time to develop and deploy
without clear commitment and leadership to
an over-arching strategy to protecting and
enhancing Nigeria’s environment through
digital transformation. The Nigerian EIA
system will continue to provide leadership
in this area, but could become a far greater
catalyst of wider scale progress with strong
Government commitment in line with investment
in digitisation across other areas of the Federal
system – economic growth, national identity
schemes, etc.
within the scope of its EIA system. Significant
progress will need to be made in this area if
the full potential benefit of digital EIA is to be
manifest over the medium-term. In relation to
EIA, prioritising specific data sources – perhaps
by selecting specific environmental topics to
focus on e.g. ecology, air quality, etc – to begin
to identify existing data and organise where
and how it could be digitised would be a useful
starting point.
- Capacity challenges – Skills and Systems.
The FMEnv Environmental Assessment
Department interviews highlighted this area
as their most significant barrier to progress. A
lack of previous need for ICT and GIS skills and
experience within the Government’s EIA system
means that recruitment rules and staff positions
related to its delivery are oriented to people
with environmental and science backgrounds,
rather than the ICT skills needed to establish
and advance the uptake of digital systems. As
such, the EA Department must seek to upskill
its environmental officers to understand not
just how to use GIS software and other digital
systems, but also how to design, commission,
program, debug and maintain such systems.
This approach will inevitably lead to slower
progress. It also carries wider risks as there will
be limits on the number of staff that can be ICT
trained – alongside continuing to meet wider EIA
capacity enhancement needs across its officers
– meaning the loss of an upskilled staff member
could significantly hamper the Department’s
progress in its digitisation ambitions.
- Digital Environmental and Community related
Data. Like many nations Nigeria has many
uncoordinated systems that continue to gather
data in paper based systems or on localised
computer stored records. This forms a barrier to
the deployment of digital systems, which often
drive efficiency and effectiveness improvements
through enhancing to use of data by making it
widely available for use and analysis. Nigeria
currently lacks effective digitised environmental
data across the board of topics that are
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Willend Associates and FothergillTC Ltd – Ambitions, Challenges & Opportunities - Progressing Digital EIA in Nigeria
