ing processes". The purpose of the project was to assist member countries in building their capacity to devise effective institutional frameworks for policy formulation and implementation for integrating environmental considerations into economic policy-making process.
The project's specific objectives of the project were:
The project consisted of an interrelated set of activities designed to lead to replicable and sustainable actions at the country level. The undertaking and publication of country level and cross-country research on the institutional aspects, together with intercountry exchanges of experiences in the development of good practice options on selected modalities, are integral parts of the exercise. Accordingly, two different sets of studies were commissioned for selected countries in the three subregions of South Asia, East and South-East Asia, and the Pacific island countries.
The first set of studies focuses on the existing institutional arrangements for incorporating environmental considerations into economic policy-making process. This topic has been further divided into studies at the national, provincial/local and sectoral levels. Each study includes: a review of the institutional modalities for making policy decisions and undertaking coordination between ministries/agencies and an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses; a critical analysis of the types of measures being used to integrate environmental considerations as well as the monitoring and enforcement mechanisms in terms of perceived effectiveness in achieving stated policy objectives; a review of training and information needs of government officials; and a set of recommendations for making improvements in all the above areas. In addition, each study explores the mechanisms designed to incorporate various international agreements on trade and global environmental issues within national policy paradigms.
The second set of studies analyses the effectiveness of various methods used for assessing environmental problems such as land use, soil erosion and hazard management, and the way in which those assessments are fed into policy decision-making process. Each study focuses on a major area of concern for the selected country and analyses the use of different methodologies and policies for addressing the problem, the coordination and monitoring mechanisms devised, and the capacity of the various agencies in the assessment of trade-offs between environmental concerns and economic development objectives.
Four volumes of the country studies available in this site:
Integrating environmental considerations into economic policy making processes; background readings
This CD-ROM publication represents only a fraction of the effort put into the project. The secretariat would like to express its appreciation to all of the country consultants, including the whose papers appear here. The Government of Japan has been very generous in providing funding for the project.
Agenda 21, The United Nations Programme of Action from Rio. (United Nations publication, Sales No.E. 93.I.11, 1994)
World Commission on Environment and Development, Our common future (The Brundtland Report), (Oxford University Press, New York, 1987) (United Nations Publication, Sales No. E.93.I.11, 1944)