The Nexus Environmental Assessment Tool (NEAT+)

The NEAT+ has been developed under the Coordination of Assessments for Environment in Humanitarian Action Initiative (Joint Initiative). The tool was built on basis of the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Environmental Assessment Tool (NEAT) but redesigned to ensure wider applicability. The content and logic in the tool are built on various environmental guidelines such as the QSAND, USAID Sector Environmental Guidelines, WWF’s Green Recovery and Reconstruction Toolkit, Rapid Environmental Assessment and FAO’s Environmental and Social Standards. During its planning and development, the tool was reviewed in detail by multiple environmental and humanitarian technical experts from UN agencies, Red Cross, NGOs, donors and private consultants. Following the tool’s development, environmental sensitivity and activity modules were extensively piloted in emergency settings by operational humanitarian agencies. The pilots were followed by updates to the tool, which was subsequently launched. To date, it has been applied in at least 30 field operations worldwide. The NEAT was developed with the financial support of USAID, UNEP, OCHA and USAID, and benefited from in-kind technical support of around 20 humanitarian and environmental organizations. As part of the NEAT+ rollout, JEU has organized webinars bringing together UN organizations and NGOs who had used the tool to share experiences and reflect on the NEAT+. User feedback has since then been used to improve the tool. Since its first launch in 2019, the tool has gone through several updates. In January 2021, the updated English NEAT+ was launched alongside French and Spanish versions of the NEAT+.