What is a Policy Assessment?

A wetlands policy assessment is an investigation into the legal frameworks, institutional set-ups and enforcement practices which govern the management of the natural resources of a given wetland area and access to the ecosystem services produced. They may be Environmental Protection Acts, Forestry Codes, Fisheries regulations or Land Use Regulations which set specific standards or limits to what activities can be allowed or how the wetlands may be used. There may be government programmes to promote livelihoods or conserve biodiversity. These rules and programmes may be well intentioned in order to provide the framework for the wise use of the resources, but they may not be enforced adequately due to lack of enforcement capacity. There may be a lack of competent or sufficient staff. Sometimes different parts of the legal system have competing or contradicting contents. This implies a need for extensive efforts of coordination and may sometimes lead to institutional conflicts at the detriment of wetlands management efficiency. Or there may oppositely be a lack of clear rules and regulations, which leaves the enforcing institutions without direction and therefore powerless to avoid a deterioration of the resource, such as for example over-fishing.

Why do we need a Policy Assessment?

Policies, governance, institutions, and markets are important to understand because they are mediating what rights or claims each of us have to access the natural resources, the ways we are allowed to manage them, and the often conflicting or competing purposes for which we are doing so. Strategies for better conserving natural resources and biodiversity cannot be devised without understanding how current policies, institutions, markets and governance structures interact with each other to shape our management practices of natural resources. The economic interests and livelihood concerns of various stakeholder groups are influenced by the policies, and at the same time they are also behind the processes which have led to current policies.

How to undertake a Policy Assessment?

A major task to do is to compile information on the specific legal frameworks actually in place concerning the environment as mentioned above. But legal frameworks covering other economic sectors such as forestry, agriculture, fisheries, transportation, urbanization, energy provision or industries are important to identify, depending on the locality.

It is important to remember to look at legal frameworks at different scales: internationally, nationally, provincially, and locally – and how these scales interact. It is also important to identify through which institutions and organisations these frameworks are enforced or practised. Who are the institutional actors?

Next, you need to study how these frameworks are applied, and observe any competing, conflicting or contradictory legal texts, and how adequate they are to cover all the management situations observed, how they are interpreted by stakeholders and authorities, and how effectively they are implemented.

Finally, you need to conclude on the needs for changes or further development of the legal frameworks, building capacity or advocating for allocation of additional staff and funding for enforcement, for improved coordination or for mediating conflicts.

As a part of the policy assessment, you should also be considering the market conditions. Does a market exist for the various aquatic resources in your area? Which resources or ecosystem services are managed through market conditions? How important are they? What are the rules governing marketed goods from the aquatic resources? How does that influence natural resource management patterns and how does this impact the state of the resources?

Policy Assessment Outputs

As for the biodiversity and livelihood assessments, the policy assessment has tangible (data) as well as more indirect outputs (working relations established, and policy-relevant knowledge and capacities shared and enhanced amongst relevant partners).

Legislation, institutions, conflicts and policies inventoried & assessed

Typical data-oriented outputs of policy assessment will be written documents with data, inventories, and analyses on existing relevant legislation, formal and informal rules, the institutional landscape, policies, programs and conflict issues.

The outputs having the form of written documents could be reports listing the relevant legislation, policies and various socio-economic development or environmental planning objectivities for the area.

Further, these reports could include reflections on the role, strengths and weaknesses of the policies and legal frameworks on the state of the wetlands and the capacity for wise use management of the resources.

Finally, the reports could include recommendations for policy action.

Working relations established

An important category of outputs which is often overlooked can be characterized as the establishment of practical working relations with relevant institutions, organizations or individuals. Such valuable social relations are sometimes referred to as “social capital” (Putnam 1993; Scoones 1998).

This output is more than a mere list of institutions and stakeholders having participated in project workshops or having been contacted by the project team. It entails having established personalized relationships of people within the various participating partner institutions who know and trust each other and have found reutilized ways of communicating, meeting and coordinating the implementation of activities and tasks which they have committed themselves to deliver as their respective on-going contributions to the creation (or production) of agreed targets.

Shared and enhanced policy-relevant knowledge and capacities

The third category of outputs produced through making a policy assessment is the increased awareness of laws and policies concerning the use or conservation of the wetland areas, including the identification of insufficiencies, inconsistencies or absence of legislation. Examples of outputs of increased awareness of laws and policies could be documented references made to specific laws and rules or programs made by the participating stakeholders during discussions, meetings or action planning sessions; or it could be observed instances of changed local aquatic resources management practices, where enforcement of rules or agreement on new ones happen with reference to the policy assessments made. This can be referred to as “human capital” (Scoones 1998).

Policy Assessment Tools

The HighARCS project integrated questions relevant for the policy analysis in the field work undertaken at the sites. They were included in the questionnaires and interview guides used by the project teams (http://www.higharcs.org/download/higharcs_interview_schedule_final_v3[1].pdf, the qualitative sections 3-7); referred to in the Stakeholder Delphi surveys conducted; and placed on the agenda for the discussions at the stakeholder meetings and workshops organized at the sites. Energy policies were assessed as an element of a local sustainable energy assessment framework reported separately (Guandong, China; Quang Tri, Vietnam; Uttarakhand and West Bengal, India).

Putnam, R.D. (1993, March 21). The Prosperous Community. The American Prospect, 4 (13).

Scoones, I. (1998). Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Framework for Analysis.
IDS Working Paper, 72.

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