Interested & Affected Parties (AIP's)

( Article Type: Explanation )

This is a term used to describe those people who have a concern about a development, project, policy or action and who need to be consulted during the process of decision making. For example, if a factory was planned to be built near a school, the school board, teachers and parents would be interested and affected parties because they would all be concerned about the possible effects of the factory on the school children. Usually, when an Environment Impact Assessment is carried out for a project, one of the tasks is to identify all the interested and affected parties so that they can have an opportunity to comment, once the details of the project are known. This is part of the public consultation process.

Interested and affected parties are those directly interested or affected whilst the public consultation process can involve people from a much wider area and with less specific interest. The broad principles embodied in the new Constitution and the new framework of government includes the twin aspects of transparency and consultation. Recognition of interested and affected parties and consideration of their views and opinions is a valuable insight into acceptance of new plans and activities or local concerns and issues, which may need to be taken into account.