Updated: July 2021
USAID’s Environmental Procedures are required by court order, executive order, and statute to utilize an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process. Pre-implementation requirements are set out in Federal regulations 22CFR216 (or “Reg. 216”) and USAID’s Automated Directives System (ADS). The ADS defines the process and follow- through requirements for project implementation, particularly ADS 204. Environmental requirements for the program life cycle are further defined in ADS 201.3.4.5. They were established and are used to mitigate adverse environmental and social impacts of USAID activities and to promote environmental sustainability.
Compliance with these procedures is mandatory. They apply to every program, project, activity, and amendment supported with USAID funds, including instruments which directly obligate or sub-obligate program or operating expense funds. Besides traditional development assistance, these also include partial loan guarantees, government to government (G2G) agreements, bilateral, and trilateral agreements.
Procedures are applied throughout the life of a project with reviews beginning at the early concept stage and carried out through monitoring and reporting until project closeout. Direct, indirect, cumulative and social impacts are considered during
this process.
