About NEAT+

The NEAT+ is a project-level screening tool, specifically designed for situations of displacement, which combines environmental data with site-specific and activity-based questions to automatically analyze and flag priority environmental risks. This allows the users and organizations to understand environmental sensitivities, mitigate risks, and find opportunities to collaborate on greener humanitarian operations.

Why?

A simple, user-friendly way for non-environmentalists to identify environmental concerns
Flags key issues for subsequent mitigation and advocacy

Who?

Humanitarian actors, e.g. field staff, community members and team leaders working in camp, peri-urban or rural noncamp or informal camp settings

When?

After life-saving needs have been met; immediately following a crisis and prior to project design, or during a change in humanitarian setting, such as an expansion of a camp or development of new livelihood support programs

Adapted for rural and urban humanitarian contexts

The NEAT+ has been adapted to be used globally in both rural and urban environments. The tool generates a summary report providing organizations and actors with a snapshot of environmental vulnerabilities, highlighting environmental risks associated with specific activities.

For rural environments

The tool gathers data, using KoBo Toolbox (a mobile data collection application already in use by many humanitarian organizations), and produces the report in Excel. Alternatively, data can be input into Excel directly.

For urban environments

The tool gathers data directly through this web application and produces a report in the application, which can then be exported (using pdf).

As an initial rapid screening tool, the NEAT+ helps humanitarian actors determine whether a more comprehensive environmental assessment should be carried out. The tool produces results in an easy to read and understand format and does not require expertise in environmental topics. The suggested mitigations can be prioritised to strengthen projects against environmental vulnerabilities and reduce harmful project impacts on the environment.

Additionally, the results can be used to start discussions, compare trends (over time or between projects), incorporated into geospatial analysis, and can be shared with donors and stakeholders for accountability and fundraising.

NEAT+ APPLICATION

Examples of the NEAT+ in action by humanitarian organizations

The NEAT+ has been successfully used and applied in multiple field operations worldwide. The Rural NEAT+ is also available for use in French-, Spanish- and Arab-speaking operations.

See examples and findings of previous NEAT+ pilots and environmental scoping missions. If you have a report to submit, please contact the UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit (JEU) (ochaunep@un.org).

This will hold the reports produced by the multi-year project based on the Nexus Environmental Assessment Tool (NEAT+), Strengthening Environmental Screening Capacity of Humanitarian Organizations, led by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and funded by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).

NEAT+ pilot test with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the JEU in the Mantapala refugee settlement, Zambia, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The pilot test identified and synthesized multiple risks facing the settlement including those relating to specific food security, shelter and WASH activities.

This environmental scoping mission was conducted in the Bidibidi refugee settlement, located in the West Nile Area of Uganda, by the UN Environment Programme/OCHA Joint Environment Unit (JEU) and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). The purpose of the mission was to highlight key areas of environmental risk in the NRC West Nile programme while using, testing and promoting the NEAT+.

The NEAT+ was applied in the UNHCR reception center, Centro de Atención Integral (CAI) in Maicao, northeastern Colombia. The purpose of the mission was to evaluate the effectiveness of the NEAT+ tool in a reception camp setting. Key findings include the need to increase and prioritize environmental education (waste management and lack of social cohesion), switching to green energy solutions, reducing disaster risk from flooding and soil erosion (through drainage systems as well as nature-based solutions), and enhancing the current community engagement and accountability mechanisms in place to promote social cohesion.

Share your feedback with us

To continuously improve the NEAT+ and adapt it to user's needs, we would like to learn more about your experience as a user and the context in which you used the tool in. Take less than 5 minutes to fill out this NEAT+ user feedback form. All responses are confidential and anonymous.

If you have any further questions, comments or feedback, please contact the OCHA/UNEP Joint Environment Unit (JEU) (ochaunep@un.org).

Rapid and simple project-level environmental screening for humanitarian operations