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ing of the districts, this is a big challenge. But there is budget, an in so doing ensuring sustainability. Many such
also need for the districts themselves to be able to support initiatives fail because they are difficult to sustain after the
their own training programmes. cycle of project support has ended, in situations where
they use a project approach. Personnel mobility and lack
7. EIN activities should be integrated into the of institutional support are some of the challenges that
normal work of the DEOs. Working on activities have resulted in high costs and in some cases leading to
such as EIN requires time that may at times conflict the collapse of EIN activities after donor support ends.
with the task and responsibility allocation of personnel
in the various institutions. This is especially the case at 9. There should be a clear strategy to strength-
the lower levels of governance such as in the districts en the vertical EIN. This could be by integrating other
and sub-counties. Many districts have only one Environ- sectors into the EIS at district level so that it becomes
ment Officer who is in charge of the entire district. The more of a district entity, other than just ‘belonging’ to the
ideal situation would be to integrate EIN activities into DEO or NEMA. There should also be efforts to integrate
the normal working hours of the institutions. However or link the EIS with other information systems like the
this is not always possible as the institutions have man- Local Government Information System (LOGICS).
dates and work programmes that do not integrate these
activities. Where there is external support, for example 10. The network should develop a strategy for
from UNEP in the case of the Africa Environment Infor- the future. Support from UNEP’s Africa EIN project
mation Network project, additional facilitation in form has allowed the Uganda EIN to carry out an inventory to
of top up allowances has been given to staff to ease the discern the current status of EIS in the country, design
situation a little. Other innovative approaches such as an appropriate implementation structure, agree on op-
the use of interns can provide the support along with erational procedures, and articulate an implementation
the expertise required for specific tasks without exces- strategy for the next five years. Apart from guiding future
sive budgetary implications. work, this implementation strategy can also be used as
a project proposal to source funding. While the inven-
8. Strategies to address the issue of sustainabil- tory and implementation strategy articulate issues from
ity are critical to the success of any program. The the producers side, the EIN also needs to consider is-
EIN needs to be concerned about the sustainability of its sues from the users’ side. Market research can add this
structures and needs to lay strategies to address this issue. dimension to this strategy. It can provide information
Confidence building across the network is an integral part on potential clients, their current information or data re-
of this process, and can be approached through capacity quirements and the nature of their future needs. It can
building. The environmental reporting processes must also be used to fine tune existing products and services
always be linked to achievement of key national develop- by providing an indication of what users’ feel about the
ment goals such as the PEAP, Prosperity for All, and the products that are already in the m arket. The guiding
MDGs, among others. By incorporating the EIN into gov- question should always be whether the users’ needs are
ernment activities, it then becomes an integral part of the being met by current products.
24 Best Practices in Environmental Information Management in Africa
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