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B. National level inter-ministerial coordination committees: environment and economic and their links.

Inter-agency coordination committees for environmental issues exist in many countries. These have varying mandates, frequency of meeting and effectiveness. These committees tend to be of two types:

(i) committees with links to economic development and environment as separate entities, and
(ii) national sustainable development committees which act as an advisory body, with economic development and environmental issues considered together.

Figure 1

The figure above provides an illustration of the structure of the first type of committee. Here, the two committees (environment and economic planning) are serviced and coordinated by their respective ministries. The committees have representatives from the various line ministries, and each line ministry may have environment cells or units to deal with sector-specific environmental issues.

Figure 2

The figure above provides an illustration of the second type of committee. The main distinction here is that economic and environmental objectives are co-ordinated by one high-level advisory body - a national sustainable development council. The council is serviced by one or more subcommittees. As in the first case, the various line ministries may have environmental cells

The issues:

Key issues arising from these co-ordination mechanisms include the following:

We take a critical look at these issues from the Asian and PIC experience. (Click the above topics)

Constraints of coordinating the integration of environmental considerations into economic decision-making processes

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