Welcome to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD’s) COVID-19 Resilience Framework, environmental and social assessment skills training programme. EBRD has responded to the economic and financial crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, by developing a ‘COVID-19 Resilience Framework’ that is designed to help their existing and new Clients. An important component of the COVID-19 Resilience Framework is this training programme, which will help boosting local environmental and social assessment skills of our local consultants and provide useful guidance to our clients.
This webpage provides access to all the training programme’s resources. Various documents and presentation materials are available in English, Russian, Turkish and Arabic. All the materials have been prepared by Environmental and Social Advisory Services Limited (ESAS) and the ESAS Training Team.
Introduction to the ESAS Training Team
The training programme has been prepared by five individuals, all of whom are internationally recognised as specialists in their relevant area of expertise. A summary of the training team is below.
Stuart Hume – Social Specialist
Stuart Hume has worked on international projects for 23 years. His international experience, which spans 39 countries, has provided him with a range of skills associated with resettlement planning, social impact assessment, stakeholder engagement and leading a process to obtain Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for a project.
Jo Treweek – Biodiversity Specialist
Jo Treweek is an experienced researcher, practitioner and due diligence reviewer, specialising in biodiversity and ecosystem services aspects of projects in a variety of sectors. She has worked in many countries in diverse roles and project development stages, from inception and design through to implementation. She has a good grounding in theoretical and practical aspects of development, has authored more than 50 scientific publications on aspects of habitat restoration or ecological assessment and is an experienced trainer.
Alan Phillips – Health and Safety Specialist
Alan is an HSE professional with extensive (over 20 years) experience of supporting project finance on behalf of both lenders and proponents. His experience has a strong focus on delivery of accurate and representative environmental and social due diligence, ensuring that findings and any subsequent Action Plan effectively mirror the risk profile of the project, focussing on root cause of any material non-compliance and developing robust unambiguous recommendations to assist in managing the exposure of the project partners. His due diligence and monitoring activities are informed by extensive experience in the development and implementation of ESMS for a range of projects, consequently his approach draws heavily on practical real-world experience.
Mark Mackintosh – Environmental Specialist
Mark is an environmental consultant with extensive (over 25 years) experience of delivering practical environmental inputs to both lenders (e.g. EBRD and IFC), and to clients seeking international lending, meeting internal ESHS requirements or compliance with international standards such as ISO 14001. His international work has covered the majority of sectors and regions, and he has successfully supported his clients grow their businesses in accordance with GIIP and ESG approaches.
Colleen Abell - Specialist
Colleen is an experienced GIS & Remote Sensing Consultant with over 18 years’ experience in GIS and remote sensing for global offshore and onshore Oil, Gas and Mining projects, with focus on environmental applications. She has coordinated data management and mapping for multiple projects of this type and is skilled at providing
