Implementing Sustainable Development: Integrated Assessment and Participatory Decision-Making Processes

Decision-makers increasingly seek to design environmental and development policies that will support sustainable development. Thus, practical tools to help formulate sustainable development policies and clear methods to assess their acceptability and effectiveness are urgently needed. This book contributes to meeting these needs by presenting both analytical and empirical aspects of decision-making processes.

The authors explore the methods for integrating environmental and social sciences to support participatory policy design, implementation and assessment of sustainable development policies. These methods are applied, richly illustrated and discussed with reference to several case studies from various regions of the world. Although each chapter has a distinct focus, they all contribute to a clearer understanding of how sustainable development is perceived and assessed by society. The book is interdisciplinary, emphasising how the integration of a wide set of disciplines and stakeholder perspectives into the policy-making process can help to improve the perception of sustainable development policies. The authors argue that there should be greater transparency in the processes of modelling and integrated assessment in order to increase the meaningful participation of all stakeholders involved in the decision-making process.

By deliberately avoiding technical jargon, this book will appeal to a broad audience including environmental, resource and development economists. It will also be of interest to anyone with a scientific or policy perspective in the measurement and assessment of sustainable development.

Edited by Hussein Abaza, former Chief, Economics and Trade Branch, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, United Nations Environment Programme, International Environment House, Geneva, Switzerland and Andrea Baranzini, Haute Ecole de Gestion de Genève, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO), Geneva, Switzerland