Eliante: ideas, projects and actions for the environment

• Water and sanitation

Water is the most important resource for development and life. Its quality and quantity are limiting factors for every community; on top of that, it could be the cause of many dangerous diseases, but its lack may cause death.

Water quality preservation and access to proper amounts of water sources are focal points for human development: Eliante’s staff has been involved in enhancing water resource access in several contexts and countries, through the choice of the most suitable technology. The same experience has been  built on waste and wastewater disposal, that is the first tool to disease and pollution prevention.

• Impact assessment

Project assessments must not only analyse environmental impacts, but also consider health and social well being of population: in fact, plans, programs and projects can definitely change lands and communities. Eliante focuses on decisions support in cooperation with stakeholders, considering and assessing concrete impacts and  bringing, by a positive attitude, our values in decisional processes.

• Monitoring and evaluation

Program and project monitoring is key to understand and correct mistakes, to improve performances and management strategies and to highlight and support elements of strength. Personal experiences of managing, monitoring and assessing international and sustainable development cooperation projects made us learn lessons concerning project-running.

Monitoring and evaluation of projects and programs are a core activity for Eliante, aimed at preventing negative impacts to supporting and enhancing functional contents and findings, which are outputs of field activities.

• Community based conservation

Natural resources (land, biodiversity, forests, water, air, minerals) are basilar for each community and country to build its own development and well-being. Overexploitation reduces the amount of non renewable goods, stealing the basis for population survival and for its economic livelihood.

We think that preserving some areas to save resources is often not feasible, neither enough. Local communities should map priority and conservation areas and manage them by themselves. Empowering agreements and developing aware actions, in order to preserve  resources and guarantee their sustainable use, is key to put in practice effective conservation and enhance livelihoods, with a real  environmental, social and economic sustainability.