The World Bank appointed Peter Nelson of Planning Green Futures to carry out the initial Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment for the Shire River Basin which covers the whole of southern Malawi.

This nine month study was designed to identify all the relevant issues affecting the Governments’ and international partners’ policies, plans and programmes for the next 20 years.

The SESA was developed on the basis of close interaction with local stakeholders through six sub-regional working groups and its recommendations are being used to guide the preparation of a 150 million US$ investment and environmental management programme which will be implemented by the World Bank and Government of Malawi over the next 12 years.