Expert Opinion: The Case for Integrated Assessment

By Hussein Abaza

Environment needs to be put at the centre of all planning and decision-making processes and trade needs to be seen as a means of achieving sustainable development and poverty reduction; not an end in itself.

Traditional sectoral approaches to developing policies, plans and programs have proven to be ineffective. We therefore need to move towards developing integrated policies that are based on a full understanding of the linkages and interactions among the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development. Environmental and natural resources, and the services they provide, can and should be deployed to achieve economic and social objectives. Environmental policies can be designed to promote sustainable trade and poverty reduction. On the other hand, environmentally- sound trade policies can also be designed to promote sound environmental management and poverty reduction.

Moreover, it is essential that policies at the national level go hand-in-hand with international- level decision-making. Likewise, international agreements should also be designed to take account of the national implications of such agreements. International initiatives are generally designed and concluded to address sectoral issues—whether environmental, social or economic—and international meetings to address sustainable development have been devoid of operational mechanisms to realize their objectives.

The global environmental crisis is not being effectively addressed and trade liberalization is contributing to resource depletion and environmental degradation on a massive scale. And yet, the benefits of trade are not being distributed equitably—the gap between rich and poor, North and South, continues to widen while extreme poverty and hunger persist. Major shifts in mindset are needed to ensure the complementarity of economic, trade and environmental policies that realize the objectives of sustainable development and broader poverty reduction.

While there is no lack of international fora, agreements or pronouncements, there is a lack of real political will and genuine commitment backed by the necessary institutional and financial mechanisms. Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) are toothless and weak and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) needs to be strengthened. While some progress is being made on some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we are still a very long way from achieving them. The World Trade Organization (WTO) pays lip service, at best, to environmental concerns. To continue to have international instruments that only address one dimension will fail to deliver upon the goal of sustainable development.

The international community is reactive. In most cases, it addresses a crisis in response to international calls for action, but fails to deal with the root causes. Often, international institutions lack the necessary authority to implement and monitor proposed solutions. Therefore, international institutions need to change the way they operate and the process needs to be fed by empirical research and scientific studies based on national experiences. Integrated assessment and planning is one way through which we can start to make the necessary changes. It can be used as a tool to design trade policies that reduce environmental and social impacts and maximize the net development gains from trade. Ideally, trade agreements need to be subjected to such an assessment to provide a holistic picture from a global perspective.

Efforts need to be consolidated to develop an integrated assessment framework that builds on the experiences and knowledge of countries and international institutions in this area. Such an initiative could be developed by adopting a wide consultative process. It then needs to be subjected to a broad peer review process and scrutiny by governments, and relevant institutions and organizations. Such a framework may be endorsed by the international community as a voluntary tool to be adopted and used initially at the national level by countries to ensure that policies—including trade policies—are developed and implemented to achieve sustainability and poverty reduction. It could also be extended for the assessment and design of regional and international policies and agreements.

The development of such a framework will assist in pooling international efforts towards adopting a widely acceptable tool to be adapted at the national level in the formulation and design of sustainable development polices, plans and programs. This will save resources and effort and provide a consistent message and an agreed approach for national-level policy design and implementation for sustainable development. The initiative will contribute to enhanced coordination by international development institutions and bilateral aid agencies. It should result in a framework document and modalities for facilitating its use and application as a first step at the country level, then eventually at the regional and international levels. It should assist in achieving the following objectives:

Hussein Abaza, from Egypt, is the Chief of the Economics and Trade Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), based in Geneva. This essay is written in his personal capacity.