The Council Study objectives are threefold:
i) Further develop/establish reliable scientific evidence base on the environment, social and economic consequences (positive and negative) of development in the Mekong Basin.
ii) Results of the study are integrated into the Mekong River Commission (MRC) knowledge base and enhance the Basin Development Planning (BDP) process.
iii) Promote capacity building and ensure technology transfer to Member Countries in the conduct of the study.
The knowledge gaps on the environmental, social, and economic impacts of major and near and medium term water and related resources uses in the Mekong River Basin will be addressed and the resulting new knowledge documented in a series of impact assessment reports. In addition, recommendations on how to address the impacts, both in terms of generating new opportunities as well as prevention, mitigation or compensation options will be developed. These objectives including the desired outputs and anticipated resource are further discussed in the Concept Note and Terms of Reference (ToR).
Planning Phase
The Council Study, which is designed to take advantage of all MRCS Programme capabilities and expertise, to put together an integrated multi-disciplinary team, has gone through an extended planning phase. Based on the Council Study Concept Note and ToR, the Council Study Inception Report was prepared and went through several rounds of review by the Member Countries through the Regional Technical Working Group (RTWG). On 14 November 2014 during the 3rd RTWG Meeting, an agreement from Member Countries has been reached to begin the Council Study implementation based on the 27 October 2014 version of the Inception Report.
Implementation Phase
The implementation phase was kicked-off through the Council Study Start-up Workshop on 12-13 November 2014. The MRCS Council Study Team with participation from Member Countries discussed several topics including the following:
Work plans and staffing plans of the various Thematic and Discipline Teams;
Assessment framework and methodology including the use of existing tools such as the MRC Decision Support Framework (DSF) in combination with new tools such as an Environmental Flow Assessment Tool called Downstream Response to Imposed Flow Transformations (DRIFT) for the Council Study; and
Selected technical topics on baseline selection and formulation of development scenarios and climate change scenarios.
Despite delays during the planning phase, the Council Study is targeted to be completed by March 2016 as per original schedule. Its success depends on many factors including the following:
Timely recruitment of international/regional/national consultants to supplement current Council Study MRCS Team.
Timely completion of technical tasks such as i) selection of the additional model(s) that will be used in conjunction with MRCS DSF models to fill-in modelling gaps; ii) selection of baseline acceptable to all Member Countries; and iii) formulation of Thematic-focused development scenarios; and Cumulative development scenarios.
Expedited and timely exchange of information between the MRCS Programmes and Member Countries with respect to request for comments, feedback, guidance, and decisions.
Assessment Framework
The overall unified assessment framework of the Council Study is illustrated in the figure below. The framework requires closely coordinating the activities of the various Thematic and Discipline Teams and successfully coordinating the technical inputs and integrating their outputs and deliverables. The Council Study is composed of six (6) Thematic Teams representing each development thematic area or sector, a cumulative assessment team, and five (5) cross-cutting Discipline Teams.