Programmatic Environment Structural Adjustment Loan

closed

The Programmatic Environment Structural Adjustment Loan Project, will support and promote the Government's program for sustainable development, primarily, to balance socioeconomic development with environmental protection, and improvement. The project will support the establishment of technical coordination mechanisms with other sectors, mainstreaming environmental issues in sectoral policy, and, by designing fiscal instruments to promote payment of municipal water fees, investments in municipal hydraulic works, and generate revenue from the use of national marine protected areas, including reinvestments related with the environmental management of these areas. Furthermore, the project will support the creation of an enabling environment to decentralize federal environmental management functions to the state level, by way of changes to key legislation; by the preparation of a staged decentralization strategy, specifying the criteria with respect to personnel, and goods; and by establishing the use of third party certification, to ensure the decentralization process. An implementation strategy will be developed to improve public access to information on environmental impact assessment, allowing the application of key legislation on the transparency of information. Risks however include vulnerability to external shocks, lack of stakeholder coordination, political constraints to future reforms, and financial resource constraints to decentralization of environmental functions. Nonetheless, risks have been taken into account in project design, emphasizing on coordination, and consensus building, and, Mexico should benefit from the recovery of the US economy, though timing remains uncertain.