Environmental issues are often underlying or contributing factors to humanitarian crises. Similarly, a crisis can negatively affect the environment, increasing the risk and vulnerability of affected populations. It is essential to provide humanitarian responders with the necessary tools and resources to quickly identify issues of environmental concern before designing longer-term emergency or recovery interventions. A consortium including UNEP, OCHA, USAID, UNHCR, NRC, IUCN, WWF, and others (the Coordination of Assessments for Environment in Humanitarian Action Joint Initiative) needed a rapid and straightforward project-level environmental screening tool which would be freely accessible to all humanitarian responders across the globe.
The UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit worked with DFS to launch the Nexus Environmental Assessment Tool (NEAT+). The NEAT+ combines contextual environmental information with site-specific data while categorizing environmental issues into low, medium, and high levels of concern. DFS provided technical support for developing the web application, its data infrastructure, and data security. An additional Rural NEAT+ (R-NEAT+) has been designed for informal/formal camp settings or rural non-camp settings using Kobo Toolbox and Excel to complete the analysis. Guidance documents are provided in English, French, and Spanish. DFS continues to provide significant updates, including an urban adaptation, on a lighter, cloud-based platform (U-NEAT+) in response to feedback from various stakeholders.
