Preserving the environment has now become a priority and an urgent matter in order to ensure that all development cooperation efforts do not go to waste for future generations. Louvain Coopération wants to play an important role in achieving this goal and has been working towards it for several years. What is the point of developing a region economically if its resources, and therefore human life itself, are threatened in the long term? This issue is even more pressing for populations in the South: they are the first to be exposed to the damage caused by climate change, for which the countries of the North are largely responsible. Since 2011, Louvain Coopération has therefore embarked on a major project to address the following recurring and crucial issue: how can we integrate the environment more effectively and systematically into all our development projects?
Fruitful but long-term work
Our team focused on creating an effective and easy-to-use indicator, a tool initially intended for the institutions that manage our projects. In 2012, the first version of an Environmental Integration Tool (EIT) was launched and tested by partners in the field in the Andean region of South America, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar. Several updates have since been made to improve the clarity and usability of this tool. The work was so successful that our indicator is now being developed in conjunction with the Klimos Toolkit, a tool from the Klimos inter-university platform – a Belgian university climate research programme funded by the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Belgian Humanitarian Aid.
Our OIE has therefore gained considerable recognition in the Belgian development world and has become a benchmark in environmental matters. The Academy of Research and Higher Education has even incorporated it into its reference tools. Its fourth version is currently in the process of being approved by other partner NGOs (Trias, ULB Coopération) and local organisations in Southern countries. The feedback has so far been unanimous: the environmental tool brings undeniable added value, even for organisations that are already aware of the issue.