Sustainable Development, Evaluation and Policy-Making

Theory, Practise and Quality Assurance

Publication: Book
Citation: Raggamby, Anneke von and Frieder Rubrik (eds.) 2012: Sustainable Development, Evaluation And Policy-Making. Theory, Practise and Quality Assurance. [Evaluating Sustainable Development series]. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

In times of financial crises and pressure to justify public spending, evaluation of projects, programs, and policies increases. Sustainability, which has become a socially and politically widely accepted concept throughout Europe, therefore ought to be included to a greater extent within evaluation practices to assess social and ecological impacts. Anneke von Raggamby of Ecologic Institute is one of the editors of this book.

This accessible book is structured according to the policy-cycle. It links the two issues of policy evaluation and sustainable development to this policy-cycle, highlighting different functions that evaluation can play in its phases. Analyzing the relationships between sustainability and evaluation, the perception of sustainability problems are presented as well as exploring the role of evaluation and assessment studies during policy formulation and policy implementation. Policy reformulation is also explored including monitoring and quality improvement schemes. The volume concludes by addressing the quality of sustainability evaluations, and the impact this has.

Language: English
Authorship: Anneke Klasing

Frieder Rubik (IOEW)
Published in: Series: Evaluating Sustainable Development series
Published by: Edward Elgar Publishing (EE Publishing), United Kingdom
Year: 2012
Dimension: 336 pp.
ISBN: 978 0 85793 254 9
DOI: 10.4337/9781781953525
Table of contents: Click to show full table of contents

Introduction
Frieder Rubik, Anneke von Raggamby and Anna Hirschbeck

PART I: PERCEPTION OF SUSTAINABILITY PROBLEMS
1. Understanding Sustainability Evaluation and its Contributions to Policy-Making
Reinhard Stockmann

2. How to Select Policy-Relevant Indicators for Sustainable Development
Frank J. Dietz and Albert H. Hanemaaijer

3. Should Evaluation be Revisited for Sustainable Development?
Wolfgang Meyer

PART II: POLICY FORMATION: THE ROLE OF EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT
4. A Basic Roadmap for Sustainability Assessments: The SIMPLE Methodology
Candice Stevens

5. Political Challenges in Policy-Level Evaluation for Sustainable Development: The Case of Trade Policy
Clive George and Colin Kirkpatrick

6. Integrated Approaches for Ex-Ante Impact Assessment Tools: The Example of Land Use
Katharina Helming, Ignacio de la Flor and Katharina Diehl

7. Politics of (Non-)Knowledge: Problems of Evaluation, Validity and Legitimacy
Stefan Böschen

PART III: POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: SUSTAINABILITY EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT APPLICATION AREAS
8. How Informed Should Decisions Be?
Stephen White and Jakub Koniecki

9. Impact Assessment in the European Union: The Continuation of Politics by Other Means?
Anne C.M. Meuwese

10. Science-Policy Interface and the Role of Impact Assessments in the Case of Biofuels
Bernd Hirschl, Timo Kaphengst, Anna Neumann and Katharina Umpfenbach

PART IV: POLICY REFORMULATION: MONITORING AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
11. Indicators as an Appraisal Technology: Framework for Analysing the Policy Influence of the UK Energy Sector Indicators
Markku Lehtonen

PART V: QUALITY AND EVALUATION
12. Quality Requirements for Sustainability Evaluations
Anneke von Raggamby, Frieder Rubik, Doris Knoblauch and Rebecca Stecker

13. Bellagio SusTainability Assessment and Measurement Principles (BellagioSTAMP) – Significance and Examples from International Environmental Outlooks
Jan Bakkes

14. Evaluation Quality in the Context of Sustainability
Thomas Widmer

15. Developing and Mapping a Community for Evaluating Sustainable Development
André Martinuzzi

Index
Keywords: Evaluation

Governance

Evaluation, Policy Assessment, Sustainable Development

Further Links

ProjectFP 7Linking Impact Assessment Instruments to Sustainability Expertise (LIAISE)

Ecologic Institute implemented an ongoing project evaluation of the LIAISE network of excellence to assess the outcomes and the impacts of the LIAISE Network of Excellence. The main purpose of this was to identify and exploit opportunities to bridge the existing gap... Read more

Linking Impact Assessment Instruments to Sustainability Expertise (LIAISE)

Duration: Nov 2009 - Apr 2014
Funding: European Commission, Directorate-General Research (DG Research), International

ProjectFP 7Evaluating Economic Policy Instruments for Sustainable Water Management in Europe (EPI-Water)

The EPI-Water project aims to assess the effectiveness and the efficiency of Economic Policy Instruments in achieving water policy goals and to identify the preconditions under which they complement or perform better than alternative (e.g., regulatory or voluntary)... Read more

Evaluating Economic Policy Instruments for Sustainable Water Management in Europe (EPI-Water)

Duration: Jan 2011 - Dec 2013
Funding: European Commission, Directorate-General Research & Innovation (DG Research & Innovation), International

ProjectSÖFEvaluating Policies for Sustainable Development (EPOS)

Evaluating Policies for Sustainable Development (EPOS)

Research on policy evaluation has gained in importance since the European Union introduced its new procedures on impact assessments in 2003. In the course of the EPOS project, the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOEW) and Ecologic Institute were organising... Read more

Evaluating Policies for Sustainable Development (EPOS)

Duration: Oct 2006 - Sep 2009
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany

PublicationBook SectionQuality Requirements for Sustainability Evaluations

Sustainability aspects are often insufficiently considered, if at all, within standards for evaluations or impact assessments. This book chapter points out the challenges raised by sustainability evaluations and the aspects which should be added to existing evaluation... Read more

Anneke von Raggamby, Frieder Rubik, Doris Knoblauch, Rebecca Stecker 2012: "Quality Requirements for Sustainability Evaluations", in: Frieder Rubik Anneke von Raggamby (ed.): Sustainable Development, Evaluation And Policy-Making. Theory, Practise and Quality Assurance. [Evaluating Sustainable Development series. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 209-240.