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? Multi-product. IEAs typically generate a family of products targeting a wide audience. The Module
products range from simple posters through fact sheets, data compendia to comprehensive IEA
reports and executive summaries. 2

? Institutionalized. IEA involves assessing and reporting on the environment and its interaction
with human well-being as an integral part of sustainable development. IEA needs to be built with
a long-term perspective in mind where assessment is cyclical, and where periodic products and
continuous interaction among participants in policy and science communities and other elements
of the public are part of the process. Abu Dhabi, UAE

IEAs are instruments for social learning where society at various levels builds knowledge about human
interactions with the environment, and the resultant risks and impacts, and in the process builds capacity
to better adapt to the challenges ahead. Along the process, the IEA contributes to a better understanding
of the links between environment and development, strengthening the capabilities of participants to
identify upcoming issues, to evaluate alternative options for action, to agree on common goals, to
promote informed decisions by policy-makers, and to set future national environmental agendas. So,
an IEA is an instrument for advancing the development of public policy incorporating stakeholder
participation.

The IEA process is made up of a number of activities including:

? Establish an institutional framework for collaboration and organization of the IEA.
Identify and enter into formal or informal cooperative agreements with different organizations with
interest, capacity and/or mandate concerning the environment. Discuss and agree on objectives and
roles to be adopted in the production of your IEA outputs.

? Establish and maintain an information base (i.e., set up information system, gather and update the
required data).The information-gathering process during the assessment provides an opportunity
to analyze the quality and usefulness of information provided by monitoring systems. It is also an
opportunity for improving data sharing and harmonisation mechanisms. Also, during this activity, it is
possible to identify new themes and information needs, as well as data gaps. This step further allows
identification of indicators of key environmental issues.

? Discussion forum. An IEA represents an opportunity for discussions on topics such as common
assessment methodologies, trends of the driving forces, pressures, and key environmental issues,
policies, policy options and scenarios. These discussions may involve the public, private sectors and
decision makers. Also, this provides an opportunity to analyze environmental policy and practice
with involvement of different stakeholders.
? Capacity-building. The IEA plays a capacity building role in two ways. First, the IEA process emphasizes
a learning by doing approach based on interactive workshops and other non-workshop based

IEA Training Manual Workshop for the National Reporting Toolkit (NRT) 9