B. Coordination between subnational levels and national level

Coordination is extremely important in order to resolve any potential conflicts between the economic and environmental goals and to formulate holistic policies. In order to achieve this goal, countries such as Nepal and the Philippines have already created advisory councils to the planning authority, such as the Environment Protection Council and PCSD respectively, with multi-sectoral representation from government as well as from NGOs and the private sector to ensure that different interests and viewpoints are considered before a given policy is designed to accomplish national goals.

Almost all the countries in the ESCAP region have set up government institutions dealing with environment matters, many of them at the national level headed by a minister. However, an apparent major weakness of the current institutional framework is the lack of horizontal and vertical coordination, resulting in dispersed sector-specific policy orientations and concomitant difficulties in trying to harmonize diverse national, local and sectoral interests. In addition, the integration of environmental considerations into the work and mandates of various macroeconomic and sectoral ministries has been hampered by the fragmentation of concerns and responsibilities, restricted decision-making processes which often exclude local level authorities, and inadequate interagency cooperation. (Source: ESCAP. "Integrating Environmental Considerations into Economic Policy Making Processes: Institutional Arrangement Mechanisms at Sector Level". New York, 1999)

In recent years, some Governments have begun to make significant changes in the institutional structures of government in order to enable more systematic consideration of the environment when decisions are made on economic, social, fiscal, energy, agricultural, transportation, trade and other policies, as well as the implications of policies in these areas for the environment. New forms of dialogue are also being developed for achieving better integration among national and local government.

The objective is to improve or restructure the decision-making process so that consideration of socio-economic and environmental issues is fully integrated. (Source: Agenda 21, Chapter 8 - Integrating Environment And Development In Decision-making)

At the policy implementation level, as far as vertical coordination is concerned, in areas where local entities are given authority to make decisions, the need for them to coordinate with national entities would be less. However, when these local and provincial entities are involved in implementing national policies, the need for their activities to be coordinated by the national entity would be greater. Either one department of national entity can coordinate the activities of all provincial entities, or each department created on a thematic basis at the national level can coordinate with its counterpart in a provincial body. The same arrangement can exist between provincial and local entities.

(Source: Integrating Environmental Considerations into Economic Policy Making Processes: Background readings, Vol. II pp. 294-295)

1. Coordination along the organization management line

The local government structure can have multiple layers depending on the size of the country and/or the government system. Coordination along the levels/layers of government is quite common as the autonomy is passed on to the lower level of hierachy. Communication along the government line can be done in two directions; top-down and bottom-up.

Malaysia: Relationship between key agencies involved in planning at federal and state level

This diagram shows the top-down and bottom-up relationship between the Economic Planning Unit (Federal Level) and other key agencies involved in planning in Malaysia and the National and State level. (More...)

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With government tendency to lean towards improved working efficiency and flexibility, other types of coordination structure/method have been adopted in many countries in the ESCAP region.

2. Direct coordination between national government and local governments (not going along the management line)

Direct coordination is a time saving and effective alternative for coordinating policy decisions from the sub-national level to the national government level, and vice versa.

The sub-national governments, with direct experience to the environmental problems, are able to provide useful insights to the national government in terms of options for problem solving. The national government will be able to incorporate sub-national government views into the national policies reflecting a policy decision that can resolve problem at the sub-national scale while maintaining the national environmental policy and planning direction.

Direct coordination, apart from being a time saving alternative, it is also effective, as both national and sub-national governments would be able to respond to immediate environmental problems in a more rapidly and flexible manner.

However, this method may be more suitable for smaller countries where there are not as many sub-national government units under one national government unit.

Example

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Suva: Interface between national and local level government

In Suva, the most direct day-to-day linkage between the national and local governments is through Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) which falls under the Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and the Environment. These links are shown in the figure below. (More...)

Each related ministries and/or institutions nominate a representative, usually a senior ranking official, to represent the ministries and/or institutions in the established coordinating body. The coordinating body meets on a regularly basis to discuss on policy issues and resolve policy differences, along with making policy decisions on behalf of the member ministries.

d. Combination of coordination through an established coordinating body and coordination through organizational hierarchy

Some countries, such as China, adopt a coordination mechanism, from the national to the local level (national-provincial-city-county), by establishing a Planning Agency, which is a functional government agency that is in charge of formulating the National Development Plan.

Each level of sub-national governance has a Planning Commission that formulates plans for each level. Formulation of each plan takes into consideration the consultation and recommendations of the sub-national governments and related departments.

Plans formulated at each level will be passed on to the higher government level, and so on until reaching the national level where plan from each level of government will be included into the National Development Plan. The National Develop Plan will then be submitted to the National Council/Congress for examination, discussion and approval.

(Source: Integrating Environmental Considerations into Economic Policy Making Processes: Background readings, Vol. II, "Development and environmental management in Shenyang City, China)

B. Coordination between various subnational levels and the national level