s in the ESCAP region have set up government institutions dealing with environment matters, many of them at the national level headed by a minister. However, an apparent major weakness of the current institutional framework is the lack of horizontal and vertical coordination, resulting in dispersed sector-specific policy orientations and concomitant difficulties in trying to harmonize diverse national, local and sectoral interests. In addition, the integration of environmental considerations into the work and mandates of various macroeconomic and sectoral ministries has been hampered by the fragmentation of concerns and responsibilities, restricted decision-making processes which often exclude local level authorities, and inadequate interagency cooperation. For example, export incentives are often devised without full consideration of the impact of increased exports on the domestic natural resource situation. Another example is the setting of pollution norms of various types on a national level, yet making local level institutions responsible for their enforcement, frequently without sufficient financial or human resources. The capacity of the various levels of government personnel to analyze and address environment-related issues also varies widely, with most local authorities having a very limited ability to make and enforce policy decisions. In addition, the various methods used for assessing the environmental problems tend to be devised and implemented in an isolated and diffused manner with negligible intra-country, or even intersectoral, exchanges of experiences.
Despite the importance accorded to sustainable development by the governments of the region, little research has been undertaken on the effectiveness of institutions and administrative structures created for that purpose in these countries. In order to fill the gap in the existing knowledge about institutional mechanisms for sustainable development, ESCAP executed a project entitled "Integrating environmental considerations into economic policy-making 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 us