Sustainability Impact Assessment for policy making: institutionalization and early practice in federal Belgium.

Transcription

1 Sustainable Development in Policy Assessment Methods, Challenges and Policy Impacts Institutionalisation of Sustainability Evaluation Sustainability Impact Assessment for policy making: institutionalization and early practice in federal Belgium. Tom Bauler Chaire Environment&Economics Université Libre de Bruxelles Centre d Etudes du Développement Durable tbauler@ulb.ac.be

2 Objectives, Questions and Method O : Understanding institutionalization formats for a national/federal SIA-scheme in Belgium Main hypothesis : the choices underlying the institutionalisation of a processoriented and integrated impact assessment is of influence for the quality, success and policy influence of SIA institutionalisation generates impact/use/influence Q:how to insert SIA in a given policy making context? What is plausible, feasible, desirable from theory? What is plausible, feasible, desirable for policy actors? How to link both? M : following-up SIA operationalisation

3 Outline 1) setting up implementation and institutionalisation scenarios : setting the goals 2) discussion of scenarios with policy actors : comparing goals to expectations 3) comparing the adopted frame to scenarios : discussing goals, expectations and formalisation 4) analyse first practice : understanding linkages between goals, expectations, formalisation and practice (ongoing work will eventually feed back and engage reflexivity : goals- (ongoing work will eventually feed back and engage reflexivity : goals expectations-formalisation-practice-learning/understanding)

4 1 setting-up implementation and institutionalisation scenarios: setting the goals

5 Institutional context and building blocks for SD Act of May 5 th 1997 regarding the coordination of the federal policy on Sustainable Development; institutionalisation of actors SD-task force at the Federal Planning Bureau (FPB) : evaluation, monitoring, reporting Federal Council for Sustainable Development (FCSD) : participatory stakeholder body Interdepartmental Commission for Sustainable Development (ICSD) : planning and instruments : Federal Plan for SD (4-year cycle) Federal Report for SD (2-year cycle) Royal Decree of February 25 th 2002; refining operationalisation : Programmatory Public Service for Sustainable Development (PPS-SD) : implementing instruments & raising awareness Royal Decree of September 22 nd 2004; refining implementation : Ministerial Cells for Sustainable Development (CSD) : implementing tools and techniques

6 Institutional context and building blocks for SIA Federal Coalition Agreement of 1999 : first explicit mention of SIA First Federal Plan for Sustainable Development ( ) : first explicit interpretation of SIA Second Federal Plan for SD ( ) 2008) : refined interpretation t ti of SIA Federal Coalition Agreement of 2003 : refined interpretation of SIA all important Governmental decisions will be assessed on their effects concerning SD, but without creating extra delays in the policymaking process. Royal Decree of September 22 nd 2004 (creation of Cells for Sustainable Development) PPS-SD SD responsible for operationalizing i the SIA methodology, and for implementing it into the Public Services and monitoring their quality Cells for Sustainable Development assigned responsibility on which types of decisions SIA to be executed, and realize or coordinate the evaluations of their administration vagueness (goals, roles, expectations), SD at the margin, weak evaluation competences, politicized policy design (ministerial cabinets vs administration)

7 Towards institutionalizing SIA : constructing scenarios 2 generic directions : Policy-making as rational-positivist endeavour oriented towards problem- solving Policy-making as a discursiveinterpretative process oriented towards problem-framing 5 possible scenarios 2 operational scenarios

8 Scenario 1: The Maximization of Institutional Integration for SD Logic : Add to programmatic vertical integration of SD a horizontal integration Implementation : SIA = in-house + inter-departmental and inter-institutional collaborations + external technical expertise Screening&Scoping : main criteria are evaluation capacity and experience by civil servants, and availability of means (budgetary, temporal ) Participation : screening and/or scoping phase (ToR) are participatory and transparent

9 Scenario 2: Maximization of Impact Objectivation Logic : Perform identification of policy impacts on different sectors, dimensions, critical resources and vulnerable populations; cope with uncertainties, complexities, dynamics, inter-relationships, long term Implementation : outsourcing; expert-driven; definition, production, diffusion and discussion of the evaluation report is the central outcome Screening&Scoping : civil servants are setting the ToR Participation : limited to the consultation and transparency of evaluation reports

10 2 discussion of scenarios with policy actors : comparing goals to expectations

11 Federal policy actors and their expectations Policy actors had initial preference for the scenario leaning on Institutional Integration, because of Evolutionary character of SIA : SIA was meant to enhance internal capacity-building first Collaborative learning with SIA : favor the confrontation of a large audience of policy-actors with principles of SD but, during discussions, emerging consensus for a combination of scenarios; i.e. towards adaptability scenario. From theory this seems the least desirable option, because Mixing profiles, i.e. washing out substance and blurring the generic goal of SIA to outsiders/politicians Shifting evaluation competences and capacities over time Rendering the created support-tools tools partly inefficient From practice this seems the least feasible option, because Missing evaluation competences

12 3 discussion of adopted frame with regard to scenarios : comparing goals, expectations and formalisation

13 Implementation of SIA (as approved by Council of Ministers on January 19 th 2007) Policy proposals on the agenda of Council of Ministers i are annexed with an SIAform. 3 SIA forms : a) exemption form for policy proposals excluded entirely from SIA b) quick scan form accounts for results and process of the screening exercise c) synthesis form presenting the SIA-report, in case of full-fledged SIA-process Evaluation is responsibility of the proposing Minister(s), i and conducted d by administration; no publicity/transparency/consultation. External expertise possible very strict version of the institutional integration scenario Practice (mid2009) : 70% of policy proposals have exemption form; 30% quick scan = 0 SIA (Governmental crisis in 2007) 3 prototype-sia evaluations were scheduled in 2008, but none was developed 2009 : 3 prototype-sia still foreseen

14 4 analyse first practice : understanding linkages between goals, expectations, formalisation and practice

15 Early practice with (parts) of SIA : evaluation exercise of the functioning i of the SD-cells including a part w/r to their appreciation of SIA-scheme Q1 : SIA is an indispensable tool to improve policy with regard to SD : yes/no is 50/50, acceptance increasing with experience with SIA-screenings Q2 : SIA is a useful tool to improve policy with regards to SD : large majority agrees (discrepancy with Q1); implicit agreement that the integration scenario is desirable Q3 : SD-cells have rather active role in SIA-process : large majority agrees Q4 : SD-cells, within their present budgetary limits should limit their role to a purely informative one : large majority agrees, but asks for additional budgets Q5 : SIA are conducted within ministerial cabinets or administration without informing the SD-cells cells : very strong agreement, thus is the integration scenario feasible?

16 Conclusions Goals: can be multi-facetted, but should be unequivocal Expectations: have been high, but remained unclear and non-consensual Formalisation: has been straightforward, but limited to the directly feasible Practice: remains very limited Learning-by-doing with the help of SIA-scheme remains impossible until now; i.e. is the institutional integration scenario the right choice? Ongoing practice of SIA in BE, thus open end, but : general underestimation of the difficulties to implement SIA into a non-evaluative setting where SD is at the margin of policy making