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VII. Meeting Information requirement at national level

The roles of the national government in various assessment activities

Assessment to formulate policy interventions is the primary assessment function of national governments. Assessment activity should focus on the relationship between existing policies and interventions and behaviours (compliance, behavioural change) or on background data related to identification and refinement of new initiatives being considered.

The role of environmental assessment at national level

• Establishment of an overall framework for environment monitoring and assessment in support of economic and social development.
• Formulation of overall national environmental policy framework and decision

Environmental assessment at national level needs to focus on:

1. the relationships between causes - effects - impacts, and
2. behavioural changes in response to changes in the overall decision environment or in response to introduction of (or changes in) specific instruments.

The roles of the national government in environmental monitoring and assessment

1. Establishment of appropriate systems: facilitating development of appropriate monitoring and assessment systems at the sub-national level which are necessary development of national and local policies, interventions, and programming
2. Data maintenance: maintaining meaningful national environmental and natural resources information systems suitable for ascertaining the aggregate state of the environment and making inter-jurisdictional comparisons in regard to environmental quality, and
3. Assessment of data: assessing information sent up from local areas, in combination with information obtained at the national scale, in order to identify and implement effective policy, interventions, programming, and awareness and information programming.

Read more on the role of national government in various assessment activities

Various forms of environmental data, including assessment of environment situation, is required from a strategic perspective in order to provide concise and practical direction for appropriate policy making. Appropriate use of environmental assessment system is an important factor for decision making. (Read on some components of environmental assessment)

The modules VII and VIII focus on the information requirements, at national level (module VII) and project/firm level (module VIII). This module focuses on the following topics;

A. Developing appropriate and sustainable databases

• Types of environmental data
• Coverage of data
• Source of data
• Application of database in environmental assessment

C. Developing database

• State of environment
• Environmental / resource accounting

D. Developing sustainable development indicators

• Parameters of sustainable development
• Modalities of environmental assessment
• Types of indicators
• Practical uses of indicators
• Composite environmental indicators
• Sustainable development indicators

E. Monitoring of data

• Modality of monitoring
• Quality of data
• Monitoring information for policy planning

F. Assessment/analysis of data

• Types of environmental data
• Assessment parameters of environmental data
• Role on improvement of environmental assessment process

G. Translating/transforming data into policy making tools

• Environmental accounting for decision making
• Environmental valuation
• Techniques of translating environmental data

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