CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Almássy, Dóra |
|---|---|
| Title | We care about what we measure: Assessing implementation capacities at the national level for the environmental Sustainable Development Goals |
| Summary | Environmental goals have become mainstream policy tools in the global quest to address environmental challenges. Despite some progress, the realization of many of these goals remains out of reach (UN Environment 2019; Jabbour et al. 2012). Since improved implementation capacities have been linked to better environmental outcomes, the thesis aimed at exploring how capacities of national governments to implement environmental goals can be assessed. As countries are gearing up for realizing environmental SDGs, addressing implementation capacity gaps could contribute to progress towards these goals. The research hypothesizes that the assessment of implementation capacities of national governments can offer insights into how these capacities can be improved through the process of policy learning. Via studying goal formulation and implementation practices related to earlier international environmental goals, the research aimed at identifying key factors of implementation capacity and attached to them, a set of implementation capacity indicators, as potential elements of a composite implementation capacity index. The identification of implementation capacity factors started with a document review of the MDG7 implementation experience of 20 Southeast Asian and Southeast European countries. As a next step, with the use of a questionnaire to over 100 policymakers and policy practitioners in the studied regions and an indicator development exercise, these factors were then condensed into 15 implementation capacity indicator clusters as potential elements of a composite implementation capacity index. At a more theoretical level, lessons have been gathered about how qualitative aspects of implementation capacities of governments can be measured more comprehensively and how the results of these assessments may be applied. The research found that consideration should be given to striking a balance between the complexity inherent in capacity issues, the need for robustness in how they are represented in assessments and their actual applicability in practice. It was also concluded that for the sake of transparency and for ensuring stronger ownership of indices and indicator sets, indicator selection and index design should involve intended future users throughout the development processes of such tools. While the research has put forward a methodology that could enhance policy learning for improving environmental goal implementation capacities, it has also identified applicability, utility, and use of capacity indicators as topics worthy of further research. Keywords: environmental goals, environmental policy implementation, state capacities, measuring state capacities, environmental governance indicators, environmental governance assessments |
| Supervisor | Pinter, Laszlo |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/almassy_dora.pdf |
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