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.