ESIA in question

Title: Rethinking Environmental and Social Impact Assessment as a Resilience Mechanism 

Author: Jean-Louis Lambeau & Walusiku Luputa

Abstract: In the context of intensifying climate stress across Africa, this article revisits the role of Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) as instruments of regulatory oversight. It argues that ESIAs should be repositioned not merely as compliance checklists but as institutional entry points for the activation of adaptive social protection systems. Drawing on emerging evidence from Zambia and the region, this blog explores how a convergence between environmental governance and social protection is becoming increasingly necessary, not as a normative ideal but as a structural imperative.

1. Introduction The climate crisis in Africa has evolved from a periodic, humanitarian concern into a permanent structural condition. Increasing frequency of droughts, floods, and erratic rainfall patterns across the continent has significantly disrupted agricultural systems, displaced populations, and overwhelmed public service delivery (Trisos et al., 2022). In this altered landscape, traditional development tools and regulatory frameworks require transformation. One such tool, the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), originally conceived as a safeguard mechanism for environmental and social risks associated with large scale infrastructure and industrial projects, could usefully adapt to new shared necessities. Indeed, ESIAs increasingly serve as a key input to the broader ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks, particularly for operationalising the ‘E’ and ‘S’ dimensions In contexts where public regulation and private sustainability standards intersect, ESIAs offer tangible opportunities to link environmental foresight with inclusive governance and social resilience;

Simultaneously, the paradigm of social protection itself is undergoing a profound transformation. Traditionally anchored in a rights-based framework enshrined in international labour standards, social protection is historically conceptualised around the guarantee of income security and access to essential benefits through contributory and non-contributory funding mechanisms. Today, however, social protection is evolving into a broader cross-sectoral developmental platform, driven by several converging dynamics including the process of universalisation, the widespread adoption of cash transfers over in-kind assistance by both development and humanitarian sectors; and the exponential growth of digital infrastructure and data systems. These advances are expanding the reach, scalability, and responsiveness of social protection systems, enabling them not only to respond to shocks across the life cycle, but also to contribute to long-term resilience, which cannot be achieved solely through compensatory transfers but requires integrated systems capable of supporting human capabilities and reducing structural vulnerability and inequality. 

These shifts occur within a broader context marked by shrinking public resources, changing international cooperation strategies, and a rapidly evolving geopolitical order. The decolonisation of aid narratives and the strategic repositioning of global and regional powers are reshaping the modalities and politics of development. In this new environment, siloed, donor-dependent responses are increasingly unviable. There is growing recognition that systemic resilience demands new alliances, more coherent governance, and repurposing existing instruments for integrated outcomes. In that sense, social protection can also generate public support for bolder and broader climate policies (Development Pathways 2025

2. The Inadequacy of Fragmented Responses Despite their ubiquity in regulatory regimes, ESIAs have remained largely procedural. While they include provisions for social risks, these are often underdeveloped, reduced to checklist indicators devoid of operational consequences (Lawlor et al., 2019). Similarly, social protection answers to climate risks remain reactive, typically activated post-disaster despite the increasing use of anticipatory mechanisms and upstream risk identification.

This disjunction is problematic. As environmental crisis intensify, delays in protection lead not only to greater human suffering but to the erosion of state legitimacy and increased donor dependency. Fragmentation between environmental governance and social protection is no longer sustainable (Hallegatte & Rozenberg, 2017).

3. ESIA as a Resilience Trigger A reframing is required. ESIA should evolve from a linear compliance mechanism to a catalytic governance instrument. This transformation entails: – Integrating anticipatory risk identification with adaptive social protection mechanisms such as cash transfers, public works, or nutrition programmes; – Embedding participation not merely as consultation but as co-design, recognising local knowledge and involvement as a foundation of climate resilience; – Establishing institutional pathways whereby ESIA outputs trigger responses within national social protection systems.

4. Who to Lead ? Such systemic integration will not occur organically. It will require coalitions of the willing:

• Countries (Governments) under fiscal, social and environmental stress;
• Private actors with reputational exposure and long-term stakes in social stability, notably in the extractives, energy and agribusiness sectors;
• Finance institutions and multilateral agencies, which straddle both infrastructure, environmental and social policies;
• Local governments and civil society organizations, as they have contextual legitimacy and can monitor impact in real time.
• Consulting firms, particularly those advising on ESG integration, environmental risk, or social policy, also play a catalytic role. As technical intermediaries between funders, implementers, and regulators, they are often the architects of the tools, indicators, and methodologies that bring this paradigm shift into practice

These actors, driven by necessity rather than ideology or good intentions, can catalyse reform. This includes strengthening engagement with the private sector, including large enterprises, to ensure broader compliance and co-responsibility in financing and extending social protection and in supporting just transitions towards environmentally sustainable economies (International Labour Organization, 2024).

5. Climate Change as the Great Converger Indeed, the urgency of this realignment stems not from theory or ideal, but from the lived experience of ecological destabilization. Climate change is no longer a scenario to be modelled; it is a structure within which all development now unfolds. It is the force that exposes the dysfunction of fragmented systems and reveals the insufficiency of clustered answers.

Responses to climate stress cannot remain compartmentalized by category, be it by age, gender, … even nationality. While such dimensions remain vital for targeting, the overarching solution must be systemic and inclusive. In effect, resilience must be understood not as the sum of protections offered to individuals, but as a property of whole societies and their institutions, a global right.

6. Conclusion: A New Development Logic Repositioning ESIA as an instrument of social resilience is not an act of regulatory expansion, but one of system efficiency and developmental coherence. Every investment in African infrastructure and beyond should be evaluated not only for its environmental footprint but for its ability to contribute to long-term development and social resilience. In this sense, ESIA can become an anticipatory mechanism, another bridge between environmental foresight and social protection.

The task ahead to re-align existing governance tools to the lived realities of climate evolution. Resilience is no longer a developmental bonus; it is the operational condition for sustainability.

References International Labour Organization (2024), World Social Protection Report 2024-26: Universal Social Protection for Climate Action and a Just Transition. Hallegatte, S. and Rozenberg, J. (2017). Adaptive Social Protection: Building Resilience to Shocks. Washington, DC: World Bank. Lawlor, K., Weiser, S.D., & Ratcliffe, A. (2019). Development Pathways (2025). Social Protection is a Prerequisite for Climate Justice. ‘The protective role of Zambia’s Child Grant Programme in the face of climate shocks’, World Development, 115, pp. 50-62. Trisos, C.H., Adelekan, I.O., Totin, E. et al. (2022). ‘Africa’, in: IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.