State of the Environment (SOE) reporting has largely been the preserve of governments, through a department or ministry mandated to undertake such an assessment, to report to parliament or government, or for public information. The objective of traditional SOE reporting is providing information on the environment and on the trends in its key variables. It is mainly concerned with the biophysical environment, and less with the human dimension, except in the context of the pressures humanity puts on the environment. It provides information on what is happening to the environment, and this information is very useful and may be used to analyse trends in key environmental variables.
Africa SOERS is a standardized, harmonized, tool to organize SOE reporting initiatives across African countries and allows users to develop an on-line SOE as well as live SOE reports. It can also be used as a training tool to build African capacities in Integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA).
An SOE report should respond to the following questions:
1. What is happening to the environment and why (state and pressure)?
2. What is the consequence for the environment and humanity (impact)?
3. What is being done about it and how effective is it (response)?
4. What could be alternative futures of environmentally sustainable (or unsustainable) development (scenarios)?
5. What alternative action could be taken (options for action)?