nssds: Vital development tool or empty acronym?

Appendix to the Workshop Report

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• Funding
• Donors likely to >cherry pick= rather than support whole process and results
• Engagement of private sector doubtful, though footprint of private sector activities key 
• Ownership – Donor?, Local?, Private Sector?
• Practical Government commitment – especially when other strategies have money behind them
• Lack of interest
• Civil society engagement, not just the country offices of international NGO’s, how to get to CBOs(?) & get them involved?  (not just dev’g, but monitoring?)
• Lack of capacity by gov, national and local, to coordinate and implement
• Lack of Civil society capacity, including lack of NGO capacity
• Need to convince government and others that NSSDs are not something new
• Variable willingness and ability among governments to conduct genuinely participatory processes
• Co-ordination
• Effectiveness may depend on which ministry leads it, eg env ministry may be less powerful
• There is a need to focus on the whole IDT not just NSSDs.
• No champion or lead implementing agency.
• Dubious WB and IMF commitment to NSSDs compared to CDF/PRSPs. Institutional rivalry among different donor and national agencies prevents collaboration 
• No international framework exists for cohesion/alignment/common standards
• Danger that NSSDs may be too environment-driven
• Economics too powerful in decision-making, too few established methodologies for participatory, cross-sectoral processes

• What is ‘reversing environmental degradation’
• Vague good priciples – hard to make locally relevant/agreed
• Measurement/definitions for outcomes/goals achieved
• If NSSDs are ‘toothless,’ what role can they possibly have in changing the course of Sustainable Development in the right direction?
• Sustainable Development undefined
• No clear definition of an NSSD.
• Vague methodology and process, lack of best practice guidance.
• No baseline data.
• Environment/sustainable development confusion.
• Need to distinguish development and implementation of NSSDs

• Vested interests driving short-term approaches
• Donors will be perceived as process drivers: some donors have installed non-nationals in key ministries.
• Decreasing power of central governments
• Lack of good governance, local democracy
• how to resolve the conflict generated by the carrot & stick syndrome
• Lack of Feedback to and coordination with Bretton Woods etc.
• Imbalance of power between different lobbies/interests/stakeholders.
• Potential that highly organised, single issue NGOs might capture process

• Literacy & Education – bothways, top down, bottom up
• Access to electronic etc information
• Lack of Awareness of theoretical commitment (at Rio)
• Public awareness

• Factors outside control of national level, eg globalisation of trade and investment agreements
• Globalisation of trade/investment 
• Lack of Feedback to and coordination with Bretton Woods etc.
• Tension between desire to establish strong national processes and the tendcncy of global processes and forces (ie WTO/trade) to undermine them and leave NSSDs only as mitigation plans. 

• Competing demands from different donors – need to co-ordinate environmental/strategies for sustainable development goals 
• Unrealistic time frames
• Overload of strategies: lack of donor co-ordination

• +ve Links between PRSP’s and Sustainable Development
• Useful: help give sense of all working towards same goals
• Useful – if  we can compare all initiatives to shared goals rather than to each other
• Positive if - There is a direct impact on national capacity for addressing sustainable development.  Potential for more coherent and complementary donor policies and interventions.
• Applies to all countries, not just developing countries, so potentially more acceptable to South

• +ve (impetus) Processes underway can be brought together, built upon. Harmonising process
• Potentially very useful if agreement can be reached that one can contribute to/be the other, if donors can converge those
• Can the NSSDs be the overarching strategy, great!
• Overlaps should be useful, within a framework of identified elements and a process which indicates whether they have been addressed
• Potentially useful if NSSDs help countries think through long-term and cross-over issues 
• Overlaps provide multiple learning opportunities and points of entry (can build on short-term, what is known/has support)

• Problematic:.
• -ve Risk of acronym brand loyalty
• Potentially very damaging if leads to overload or NSSDS being dropped in favour of e.g. inadequate PRSP/CDF
• Problem is political agenda & therefore lack of co-ordination within and between donors
• Focusses problem on developing countries to take action rather than all countries
• Dangers of territorial proprietorship and unwillingness to coordinate and build synergy etc 
• Dangers that NSSDs and the CDF are both trying to be the overarching framework for development 
• If not tied more closely together – joint thinking so to speak – they run the risk of competing for resources
• Other donor processes should feed into NSSDs but alongside other programmes, ie LA21. Need to identify how and who will pull this together
• NSSDs might precisely be judged on their ability to align or integrate other processes: but how can you judge success in this? Measuring integration and processes hard. 

• -ve  Planning fatigue
• Problematic: co-ordination – reality of time/resource allocation
• Numerous strategies – dnager that donors cherry pick
• Complicates situation, esp the burden on developing country capacity.

• Regional coherence

• Institutional change/adaptation to enable broad participation in process and goal setting
• Peer review by  other countries NGOs and wider country groups
• Independent review of UK gov NSSD as example of good/bad practice?
• Understanding of different visions enabling constructive communication between governments, NGO’s, indigenous people etc
• Support diverse participation of NGO’s (eg through encouraging and financing partner participation)
• Translation, meetings, use local leadership structures, go to local people
• Build bridges between ministries, cultures …
• Raise awareness - Use media – info, dissemination, advocacy
• Support:  work with DFID and directly with Southern Govts. and Civil Society to help facilitate dialogue and share knowledge
• Southern:  interact more closely with NSSD “champions” in country (DFID, EU)
• Need to be well-informed first, and look at positive example of NGO/CSO engagement in any of the strategy processes.  So NGO capacity building and info. Sharing with southern(?) partners.
• By looking at ways to improve and develop strategies that already exist at the national level, and finding ways to build permant processes for participation and consultation.
• There should be a push for a practical application – a “toolkit” perhaps
• Support International lesson learning and sharing, including facilitating North South and South-South work.
• Spread information and raise awareness among private sector about their responsibilities
• Promote and catalyse dialogue among the government, private sector and civil society in the UK and link it to the DAC dialogues on developing countries 
• Encourage integration between sectors and targets
• UK NGOs should focus on capacity-building. Should broaden discussions to include more development NGOs 
• Monitor progress in development and implementation
• Suggest methodologies for research and decision-making towards NSSDs. Identify best and worst practices and share experiences. 
• Challenge:  examine critically what can be achieved and how 
• Lobby for the delinking of aid to donor led strategies
• Push for donor coherence both within and between donors and lobby for strategy convergence
• NGOs could lobby for mutual accountability between North and South – how to address imbalance of power?  Could the South fine us
• Can you have an NSSD where there is not already a strong civil society and participation?
• Southern groups must decide among themselves whether to accept, promote or reject the NSSD concept
• Suggest methodologies for research and decision-making towards NSSDs. Identify best and worst practices and share experiences. 
• Changing rules of the game

•  PRSP resource handbook – range of questions linking development targets with specific environment outcomes (still in draft stage – more input from civil society encouraged,) and uganda prsp especially.

• There is lots of info (Sane/IIED) but that is not enough to ensure buy-in (long-term process)
• Agenda 21?
• Poverty alleviation action plans – PEAPS
• Certification (eg of timber products) may be a start.
• Initiatives under international conventions eg biodiversity, climate change and desertification?
• Issue-focussed examples, eg Freshwater Framework for Action (though not perfect participation) 
• Some multi-criteria analysis conducted in EU
• Wealth of literature on NSSD website: www.nri.org/nssd (though mainly on elements and little on pulling the whole together)
• Need to see analysis of what went wrong with National Environment Action Plans
• World Commission on Dams multi-stakeholder managed studies
• Individual CDF documents/PRSPs as examples of where countries are going and how on environmental/s.s.d. issues.
• Vision Water 2021/Nepal comment:
• Ecuador Vision 2020 was remarkably participatory (involving mutual training not just dialogue.)
• PEAP review/Uganda/Various local Agenda 21 processes (N&S)
• Uganda PPA and its impact on the Uganda PEAP (PRSP) involved NGO, academic, local CSO and local government, engagement in the PPA and also involved sustained lobbying and advocacy to reflect the results of the PPA in the PEAP.  Targeted Ministry of Finance.
• Vision Nepal
• Some local Agenda 21s and local Biodiversity Action Plans
• Namibia review of NDP1 and Green Plan (participatory and multi-sectoral)
• EU-backed GREENSTAMP scenario modelling approaches tried in Czech Republic and elsewhere. 
• Pakistan NCS
• Ghana Vision 2020 
• Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Plan

• Before info, they need to be persuaded of the benefits of NSSD processes for that country (“prior informed awareness?”)
• Need central point of information – information is needed abut nature NSSDs, good practice and how to engage.  ?DAC co-ordinate.
• Need sense of outcomes to focus on.
• Clear definitions.  Too much time is spent reinventing the wheel.
• Web, non-web and media-oriented materials to energise discussions
• Examples of indicators
• Need central point of information – information is needed abut nature NSSDs, good practice and how to engage.  ?DAC co-ordinate.
• Co-ordination need is probably more key – how to make best use of lack of capacity resources
• They need to know who the other stakeholders are – who are they to lobby – channels of communication
• Equal access to official information with government participants
• Carefully planned consultation processes with adequate time for CSOs to formulate their positions and consult communities and clear mechanisms for input and participation
• Clarity on expectations and authority of various strategies
• clear government commitment that willing to engage in a transparent partnership approach (trust vital)
• Web, non-web and media-oriented materials to energise discussions
• Raise awareness on what sustainable development means
• Dissemination to broad range of actors

• Encourage environment and s.s.d. goals as part of PRSPs – NSSD material and documents can feed in to this!! e.g. Uganda, Ghana etc.
• We need to discuss NSSDs more widely in particular countries
• Info to – internal teams & partners
• Encourage to enquire/participate.  Advance understanding in context our work on water
• Plan to inform Country Programmes about it and find out what to do re CP involvement, re building capacity of partners
• Monitoring how these relate to IFI processes such as CDF and PRSPs.
• Create a link between the international agenda – conventions, protocols etc – and the local level.  Facilitate some sense of ownership in this process by the average person.
• UNED FORUM: web site and newsletter for Earth Summit 2002. Will include information provision and good practice database
• WWF-UK: Action research projects to determine obstacles and opportunities for sustainable development 
• Work with global institutions on incorporation of biodiversity into international frameworks
• BRETTON WOODS PROJECT: work to clarify World Bank/IMF analysis and actions, eg on the CDF/PRSPs and inform CSOs about them. 
• IIED: Ten years of collaborative research on NSSDs, coordinating DAC dialogues initiative, hosting NSSD website(?)
• CHRISTIAN AID: detailed work with partners on PRSPs - probably in Tanzanie and Rwanda. Study on civil society participation in national development planning (PRSPs, CAS, Consultative Group meetings, etc) in Mozambique, Brazil and Bolivia
• TEARFUND: work with partner networks
  
  
  4.2  Report back from breakout sessions – key issues.

• Vague methodology and process.
• No champion, no money, no incentive.
• Imbalance of powers of lobby.

• NSSDs must consider the global footprint – dependencies.

• Capacity building for civil society i.e. training, exchanges.  The south needs to develop their own capacity.
• Allow the south to speak for itself. 
   
   

• Use media in communicating concept and process
• Examine developed country processes and learning/sharing problems
• Independent evaluation
• Accurate information
• Peer review with diverse inputs
• other countries
• in-country multidisciplinary groups
• Democratic process
• Cross sectional sectoral? planning
• teeth implementation and enforcement
• financial support for whole? strategy changes rules of ‘the game’
• process and clarity (on concepts, principles and implementation)
• Who pays for process?
• Who monitors, who makes decisions?
• Responsibility/accountability
• Work with/use influence of Private Sector

• Links to WTO
• Investment/Capacity issues in country
• Trade
• Climate Change impacts
• Global Footprints (Impacts of developed countries on developing countries)
• Global to local dependencies
• Links to Multilateral Environmental Agreements
• Balancing NSSD with Int. Commitments (on all previous listed things)

• Good governance
• Ownership by developing country.
• Strategy overload – capacity issues relating to other dialogues (PRSPs/CDF)
• Integration between sectors in-country and buy-in i.e. building bridges between ministries
• Political reality
• Constructive dialogue between all actors

• Dissemination/info local/global
• Use media
• Cross-sectoral
• NGO capacity with partnership

Appendix B:  Resources 

This is a preliminary list of potential reference sources which might assist those working on NSSDs.

www.nssd.net
Website for OECD DAC NSSD project.  Also available on CD ROM. Contains a list of key reference documents and information on developing dialogues on national strategies for sustainable development.

www.iisd.ca
Website of the International Institute for Sustainable Development.  Links to other websites and research on various topics including indicators.

sdnhq.undp.org/c21
Website of UNDP's Capacity 21 project which aims to support the production of Agenda 21 strategies.  UNDP’s homepage address is www.undp.org

www.ncsdnetwork.org
Site set up by the Earth Council on Councils for Sustainable Development.  The Earth Council’s homepage is www.ecouncil.ac.cr

www.wbcsd.ch
Homepage of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development for a private sector view of sustainable development.

www.worldbank.org
For papers on the Comprehensive Development Framework look at www.worldbank.org/cdf

For papers on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers look at www1.worldbank.org/prsp

For green accounting (genuine savings) and indicators look at www-esd.worldbank.org/eei

www.brettonwoodsproject.org
For briefings and updates on World Bank and IMF initiatives (CDF, PRSPs, genuine savings, etc) from an NGO perspective.

www.oecd.org
The OECD’s homepage.  Look under …./dac/ for development indicators and development policy documents.  Also look under …./subject/sustdev/ for work by OECD members on sustainable development.

DETR and DFID sponsored project carried out by RIIA that ended earlier this year – to consider the feasibility of developing a framework for assessing the UK's sustainable development impacts overseas. The origin of the project lay in the UK's 1999 sustainable development strategy, A Better Quality of Life, which committed the government to sponsor a seminar on the UK's 'sustainable development footprint'. The overall aim of the project team, as well as participants at a workshop that was a main focus of the work, was to make practical suggestions for a way forward for the UK.  The work looks at the impacts of the major 'drivers' of impacts: trade, aid, investment among others, as well as the potential contributions of the huge range of existing approaches to assessing overseas impacts.  Environmental footprints and environmental space, social impacts assessment, aid evaluation, corporate accountability frameworks and emerging approaches to assessing environmental and social impacts of trade liberalisation were all considered, among other relevant methodologies. You can find an introduction to the project, and download a .pdf file of the final report - which maps out a way forward for future work to develop a 'UK impacts assessment methodology'.

Appendix C
Attendees -NSSD Seminar 18^th May, 2000

1.         Adofey Bing                                        Africa Centre
2.         Alex Wilks                                          Bretton Woods Project
3.         Andrew Lee                                        WWF-UK
4.         Andy Atkins                                        Tearfund
5.         Angela Wood                                      Bretton Woods Project
6.         Barry Dalal-Clayton                           IIED
7.         Belinda Calaguas                                WaterAid
8.         Charles Nouhan                                  UNED Forum
9.         Chris Church                                       ANPED
10.       Chris Howe                                         WWF
11.       Clive Wicks                                        WWF
12.       Cordelia Musa                                    Int’l Alliance of Ind.People
13.       Damanjit Singh                                   WWF
14.       Dermot O’Gorman                             WWF
15.       Francis Sullivan                                  WWF
16.       Gabriela Grau                                     WWF
17.       Glyn Davies                                        Biodiversity in Dev.Project
18.       Gordon Shepherd                               WWF
19.       Hervé Lefeuvre                                  EPO
20 .      James Martin-Jones                          WWF
21.       Jim Munro                                          DFID
22.       Joanna Green                                     TearFund
23.       John Barker                                        WWF
24.       Julia Collingbourne                            TearFund
25.       Kakuko Nagatani                               WWF
26.       Mark Kenber                                      WWF 
27.       Mary Painter                                       RSPB
28.       Mick Foster                                        ODI
29.       Mike Battcock                                    DFID
30.       Mike Noyes                                        IFRTD
31.       Kevin Ashby                                       NLCB
32.       Kishore Shah                                      World Faiths Dev. Dialogue
33.       Parshuram Tamang                            Int’l Alliance of Ind. People
34.       Paul Whiffen                                       TearFund
35.       Paula Chalinder                                  DFID
36.       Peggy Allcott                                      WWF
37.       Pete Shelley                                        DFID
38.       Richard McNally                                WWF
39.       Rod Stern                                            WWF
40.       Rosalie Gardiner                                UNED Forum
41.       Sally Nicholson                                   WWF
42.       Sandra Charity                                    WWF
43.       Sarah Cambridge                                World Bank
44.       Séan Doolan                                        Birdlife International
45.       Steve Walter                                       British Council
46.       Tim Geer                                             WWF International
47.       Donna Day-Lafferty                           WWF
48.       Marie Bowman                                   WWF
49.       Jenny Richmond                                 Christian Aid
50.       Rachel Marn                                       Save the Children
51.       Charles Newland                                UNED