Supporting governance of economic development: the PAANEEAC experience in Central Africa

This article aims to evaluate PAANEEAC (Projet d’appui au développement des associations nationales pour l’évaluation environnementale en Afrique Centrale), the program to support the development of national associations (NAs) for environmental impact assessment (EIA) in Central Africa. PAANEEAC’s objective is to improve the governance of investment decisions through strengthening capacities for EIA. From the literature explaining the failure of donor-induced capacity development programs, the article deduces conditions for success. The empirical assessment of PAANEEAC is based on document review, extensive interviews, and observations. It concludes that PAANEEAC managed to create platforms in which stakeholders meet with the common objective of improving EIA systems, and that this led to measurable, albeit modest improvements in EIA systems. Furthermore, PAANEEAC met most of the success conditions, which was instrumental for its performance.