The Regional Environmental Advisor (REA) is responsible for:

Environmental Compliance. The REA ensures that all USAID projects in West Africa

are in compliance with U.S. Government regulations, 22 CFR 216. The REA does this by providing guidance and technical assistance in reviewing and preparing documentation related to USAIDs' environmental procedures for the bilateral USAID Missions in West Africa, activities located in non-USAID presence countries, and The West Africa Regional Mission (USAID/WA).

Technical Support and Information Exchange. As requested, the REA also provides environment and natural resource management technical support to bilateral USAID Missions in West Africa, non-presence countries and WARP in the following areas: Project/program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; Program needs assessment; Proposal reviews; and Scope of Work development. The REA also promotes regional collaboration and information exchange within West Africa, with other USAID regions, and with other agencies/organizations by providing and/or circulating technical materials and participating in workshops, meetings and seminars. The REA also represents USAID/WA at environmental/natural resources conferences and meetings.

Project Management. Two regional projects are in the design phase and discussions for a third, to be managed by USAID/WA in collaboration with bilateral Missions and non-presence countries, are underway:

A transboundary natural resource management initiative involving Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire aimed at monitoring resource stocks, flows, and values to improve management transparency and the sustainable utilization of these resources.

A regional urban environmental activity addressing solid waste (plastics) management issues. The project will develop and implement action plans for select municipalities in Ghana, Niger, and Togo.

A transboundary watershed management project is under discussion by USAID/WA, USAID Guinea/Sierra Leone and the US Embassy in Sierra Leone.

All the projects will generate a series of lessons learned and best management practices for transboundary resource management and regional environmental issues that can be applied elsewhere in West Africa.

The REA works toward his objectives by focusing on clear and regular communications, fostering synergy among USAID/WA, bi-laterals, non-presence countries, and other organizations through highlighting shared goals and overlapping objectives, and through teamwork.

ASSISTANCE FOR EMERGENCY LOCUST/GRASSHOPPER ABATEMENT (AELGA)

Through its Assistance for Emergency Locust/ Grasshopper Abatement (AELGA) Project, USAID has been a strong ally for the past seventeen years in the West Africa region's battle against emergency trans-boundary outbreaks of pests such as desert locusts, grasshoppers and armyworm that can threaten food security.

AELGA's major objectives are to strengthen national and regional capacities to prevent and mitigate pest outbreaks while ensuring environmental safety. It does this through: Training activities and programs to build African capacity to monitor, survey, rapidly report, and safely manage and control pest outbreaks using environmentally benign strategies; Rigorous Programmatic Environmental Assessments of emergency transboundary outbreak management and control strategies; Detailed, country-specific Supplemental Environmental Assessments to provide guidance on how to reduce the environmental impacts of pesticide spraying campaigns; Research into the use alternative control strategies such as botanicals, fungal and viral pathogens; Research studies to better understand the population dynamics that govern the lifecycles of desert locust to more effectively predict where outbreaks might occur; Collaborate in and support multi-donor activities including obsolete pesticide disposal and emergency pesticide application through the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as well as regional pest control organizations; and Outreach activities to U.S. Embassies, USAID missions, partners and other stakeholders to help guide policy and decision-making processes.