National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA) for Global Environment Management

This project aims to provide a strategic support to environmental management in El Salvador. The primary objective is to establish how global and regional environmental priorities, in particular those associated to biodiversity, land degradation/desertification, and climate change, could be involved in ongoing and planned capacity development initiatives, supported by the Government and other institutions. To combine these elements with the NCSA at the national level, it is proposed to focus efforts in the Cerrón Grande area, an important aquatic ecosystem in El Salvador. The NCSA will use Cerrón Grande as a pilot area and distill lessons learnt form the pilot experience to draw conclusions on capacity needs at a national level. The NCSA will act as a convergence tool for domestic and international assistance to meet capacity needs within the country. The overall project objectives are to: 1) identify, review and confirm priority issues pertaining to capacity development within the thematic areas of biological diversity, climate change and desertification/land degradation to produce a national diagnosis and action plan. The NCSA will review and verify capacity development needs already mentioned in the official documents produced by the Conventions mentioned before and will not repeat what has been already done. Also, the Cerrón Grande area has been chosen to focus efforts; 2) respond to guidance on capacity building provided by CBD and UNFCCC; 3) explore national capacity needs and opportunities at the individual, institutional and systemic levels, within and across the three thematic areas, considering the Cerrón Grande impoundment as convergence area; 4) improve inter-sectoral communication to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of environmental management; 5) coordinate action and requests for future domestic and external assistance; and 6) formulate an Action Plan to attend to and strengthen needs for national capabilities and synergies amongst the Conventions at national level .