Strategies for National Sustainable Development
A Handbook for their Planning and Implementation

Overview

Learning from experience

In 1980, the World Conservation Strategy (WCS) recommended that countries undertake national and sub-national conservation strategies. Since then, hundreds of countries and communities have developed and implemented strategies. Some have been inspired by the WCS, others by Our Common Future (1987), still others by Caring for the Earth (1 99 1) and Agenda 2 1 '(1 992). Some have been motivated or assisted by international organizations such as the World Bank, UNSO, UNDP, FAO, IIED, and IUCN. Others have acted on their own initiative or relied entirely on their own resources. Reflecting their different histories, the strategies go by various names: conservation strategy, environmental action plan, environmental management plan, environmental policy plan, sustainable development strategy, national Agenda 2 1, and so on. They are referred to here by the umbrella term of 'strategies for sustainability'. Diverse though they are, the more successful strategies have common features, and lessons can be learned from them all. Chapter 2 summarizes 10 lessons from 14 years of experience with strategies for sustainability. We refer to them regularly throughout the handbook.

The contribution of strategies to sustainable development

Sustainable development means improving and maintaining the well-being of people and ecosystems. This goal is far from being achieved. It entails integrating economic, social and environmental objectives, and making choices among them where integration is not possible. People need to improve their relationships with each other and with the ecosystems that support them, by changing or strengthening their values, knowledge, technologies and institutions.

Major obstacles include lack of agreement on what should be done, resistance by interest groups who feel threatened b change, and uncertainty about the costs and benefits of alternatives. Overcoming these obstacles requires continuing public discussion, negotiation and mediation among interest groups, and development of a political consensus.

National sustainable development strategies (NSDSs) are needed to provide a framework for analysis and a focus for debate on sustainable development and processes of negotiation on, mediation, and consensus-building, and to plan and carry out actions to change or strengthen values, knowledge, technologies an institutions with respect to priority issues.

Strategies can help countries solve inter-related economic, social and environmental problems by developing their capacities to treat them in an integrated fashion. Existing strategies have already resulted in improved organizations, procedures, legislation, public awareness and consensus on issues. Hence an existing strategic initiative - such as a national development plan, national conservation strategy, environmental action plan, or sector strategy - could be built into a nation sustainable development strategy. Only in exceptional circumstances will an NSDS need to start from scratch.

Strategies are not panaceas, however. They are breaking new ground in the ways societies and governments tackle complex issues. Therefore, they can be controversial, take time to develop and get results, and require special management skills. They can too easily be marginalized because of the scope of the challenges they face. This handbook aims to help strategy participants and managers overcome such difficulties, and design and implement a successful strategy for sustainable development.

Building a national sustainable development strategy

Strategies may be international, national or local. They may be sectoral or multi-sectoral. This handbook covers national multi-sectoral strategies. In many countries, economic, social and environmental strategies are uncoordinated, each being undertaken parallel to the other. The number of partially integrated strategies is growing as environment strategies address economic and social concerns; and as development plans pay more attention to environmental factors. Although integration is increasing, no fully integrated sustainable development strategy yet exits

The conditions required before developing a multi-sectoral national strategy include:

1. a defined need and purpose;

2. a location for the strategy's steering committee and secretariat where they can have the greatest influence on the national development system;

3. high level support;

4. the commitment of key participants; and

5. a conducive political and social climate.

Necessary conditions that can be generated during the strategy process include:

• Wide understanding of the concepts of sustainable development and the strategy, and of the need for both;

• Clear goals and objectives;

• a broadly representative body of well-trained, experienced and committed people to drive the strategy;

• adequate resources; and

• effective communications.

Many of these conditions can more readily be developed by working on a strategy that is less ambitious than an NSDS, such as a sectoral, regional or local strategy.

The feasibility and scope of an NSDS can be determined by assessing whether the conditions can be met (and how to meet them), where change is most needed, how the strategy would relate to the decision making system, how existing strategic processes could best be enhanced, what resources the strategy would need, and how they could be provided.

Participation in strategies

Sustainable development involves trade-offs among economic, social and ecological objectives. Such concessions cannot be determined by 'scientific' means alone, no matter how multi-disciplinary. They are value judgements and therefore 'people centred' approaches to sustainable development strategies are needed as well. Participation by stakeholder groups is critical for decision-making, and for all tasks of the strategy cycle, taking different forms for each task. The result will be a realistic strategy, with a broad, base of knowledge, understanding and commitment from the groups involved, and with strong links to promising local initiatives.

The challenge of participation is considerable. 'Horizontal participation across sectors and geographic regions has to be complemented by 'vertical' participation from national to local levels. It is best to begin by using existing structures an methods for participation, although they are usually weak The introduction of new elements -participatory inquiry, communications/ information and education campaigns, round. tables and special committees - can have a great impact and is relatively easy. NGOs and local governments can help to bring this about. However, it is mistake to 'think that participation is entirely a non-governmental affair; ultimately, governments need to find appropriate roles as facilitators in participation, and hence to continually increase the effectiveness of strategies.

Getting started

NSDSs need to build on, and provide a frame-work for, other forms of strategic processes operating at national level.

The strategy process should include:

1. information assembly and analysis;

2. policy formulation;

3. action planning

4. implementation and

5. monitoring and evaluation.

Each of these components is driven and facilitated by participation and communications. A multi-track process, whereby most of the strategy components occur simultaneously, is likely to be more effective than a single-track process, with most occurring sequentially. The strategy experience to date has usually followed a sequential approach without fully appreciating the central functions of communications and participation, or the importance of early implementation. A multi-track process, including working links between the various components and continual reflection and revision, inevitably will demand a broader range of management skills than the more conventional approach.

The basic management structure for most strategies has comprised a steering committee and secretariat. Although they have come in many shapes and sizes, experience suggests some general rules for their functions, location, status and composition. The start-up phase of a strategy can be a time of some frustration while relationships with existing activities are thought through, key participants brought on board (including financing and assistance bodies), decisions are made and the basic directions set from a range of options. Well-targeted, decisive but diplomatic management at this early stage can determine the level of success of the strategy in later phases.

Planning the strategy

A strategy is more likely to be implemented successfully if it concentrates on a few priority issues while retaining a broad purview. The issues should be central to maintaining or improving the well-being of a significant proportion of a country's people and ecosystems and to achieving agreed economic objectives. They should be sufficiently high-profile and able to be tackled effectively to generate political support for the stratety. And the strategy should be able to make a clear difference in how the decision-making system deals with the issue.

A few broad but well-defined and measurable objectives are necessary for each issue, to enable monitoring and evaluation of the strategy and ensure it gets results. Participants analyse the issues to reach agreement on the objectives, and on the policies and actions required. This includes preparing a policy framework as well as specific cross-sectoral and sectoral policies. The policy framework should relate the strategy policy to the other policies of government (and of other participants in the strategy), identifying which policies may override it - and the circumstances under which they may do so - and which are subordinate. The last of the basic elements in planning a strategy is clearly defining the actions needed to put the policies into effect.

Implementing the strategy

The sooner implementation begins, the sooner the strategy can benefit from experience. Early action generates greater commitment and momentum to the process and builds capacities for managing it. Other plans for action will be needed, throughout government and at local levels. These include implementation by government, the private sector and NGOs. Each has a key function which can be helped through the appropriate legal frameworks, economic instruments and mechanisms for mediation and conflict resolution. Cooperation, rather than compulsion, is a useful rule of thumb.

The strategy secretariat, of the body which takes up its functions, a key role to play, particularly through demonstration and pilot programmes bridging a number of sectors. Responsibility for implementation becomes more diffuse with each turn of the strategy cycle and as the institutional mechanisms for sustainable development mature. These will include new forms of partnership that emphasize flexibility and adaptable approaches to problem-solving and consensus-building.

Keeping strategies on track

There are significant challenges to be faced in the assessment tasks of strategies because they cover multiple sectors, geographical areas, objectives and actors.

Assessment combines monitoring, evaluating and reporting on the strategy. Assessment is primarily forward-looking. Its purpose is to improve the strategy process, help it meet objectives, and adapt the strategy to changing needs.

Assessment should be an integral part of the strategy from the start and cover all aspects: objectives, participation, communication, role in the decision-making system, planning, implementation, and results. Clear distinctions need to be made between . assessing these strategy tasks themselves (a management function), assessing the changes in the broader environment in which the strategy operates, and assessing the impacts of the strategy. Careful choice of a manageable set of indicators is required for each.

Financing strategies and the role of external agencies

Funding agencies have played a crucial role in the development of national strategies, and there are now many lessons which can go to improving the important contribution such agencies have to make. Among them is the pressing need for donor coordination, so that the capacities of recipient communities are not undermined or distracted by overlapping and sometimes conflicting demands. There has been a tendency for donors to pick and choose from a portfolio of proposed actions. As a result, the strategy loses its importance as a framework for sustainable development. Donor support has been patchy, both in terms of the range of actions supported and of consistency of backing over time. Defining approaches for greater financial security needs to be given high priority.

National Environment Funds (NEFS) can contribute to long-term stable financing for strategies. Because NEFs rely on participatory management approaches, they also engender greater local control and self-reliance in the strategy process. One of the most attractive features of an NEF is its ability to distribute funding consistently over a long period of time at levels that local institutions can effectively absorb.

Like external funding support, technical assistance to national strategies from international organizations has produced mixed results. There are important lessons on how to use expatriate personnel. Experience has shown that international NGOs in particular can continue to play a vital role in providing the appropriate kinds of technical support to strategy teams.

No matter how successfuI some national strategies have been in attracting funds for their planning and implementation, the levels of resources are insignificant when compared to those associated with the big forces shaping development, such as structural adjustment policies and World Bank loans. The most important task for NSDSs for the remainder of the decade will be to harness and modify those forces to be consistent with sustainable development goals.