How do we build institutional capacity to support sustainable development?

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How do we build institutional capacity to support
sustainable development?

• Viv Heslop
• Vivacity Consulting Ltd
• 09 8467177, 021 848847
• viv_at_vivacity.co.nz

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My interest
develop legislation,strategy policy
implement strategy policy
but how ?
little attention to building capacity to support
implementation
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My premise

• need to focus more on institutional capacity if
  New Zealand is to progress sustainable
  development
• capacity building needs to be an explicit focus
  of policy development implementation

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From 1987 to 2002

• need for institutional change recognised in Our
  Common Future 1987
• institutional dimension added by UNCSD in 1995
• criticism at 2002 that failure of progress due to
  lack of focus on institutional arrangements
  inadequate governance tools

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The institutional challenge

• work collectively to collaborate
• set policy make decisions for the long term
• be flexible adaptive in policy-making
• integrative thinking

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What does governance mean for sustainable
development?

• mobilization and management of collective action
  amongst an array of actors
• need capacity for collective action (Healey et
  al 2002)
• challenges existing institutional arrangements
  and capacities
• sustainable development needs to become the
  rules of the game

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Sustainable development as the rules of the
game - what does this mean?
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A soccer analogy

• In soccer you have
• the rules - controlling how game is played
• players - how teams are organised to play,
  including use of substitutes
• coaches - how players get the skills they need to
  play the game
• cheerleaders - those who inspire the players
• umpires - those who decide if the game is being
  played fair

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Translating this to sustainable development
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The rules

• what it will take to progress sustainable
  development
• long-term
• collaboration partnership
• knowledge management
• adaptable flexible policy processes
• soft skills - negotiation, conflict resolution,
  facilitation
• subsidiarity
• communication

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The players

• how we structure ourselves for the collective
  action challenge
• governance mechanisms
• adaptive institutional arrangements

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The coaches

• developing institutional capacity to support
  sustainable development
• human resource development
• intra-organisational capacity
• inter-organisational capacity
• external institutional rules incentives

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The cheerleaders

• strong leaders being able to inspire on the need
  for change to push the change
• recognise, develop support this talent

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The umpires

• those who judge critique progress
• PCE
• Audit office
• DPMC
• WSSD
• OECD
• UNEP
• UNCED

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Focus on institutional capacity and institutional
arrangements
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Aspects of institutional capacity
Human Resources (i.e. individuals)
Intra-organisational capacity
Inter-organisational capacity
External institutional rules incentives
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• The process of equipping people with the
  understanding skills, and access to knowledge
  information to perform effectively

Human Resources (i.e. individuals)

• greater emphasis on process-related soft
  skills
• communication
• cooperation
• conflict resolution
• build coalition infrastructure
• facilitation
• negotiation
• creativity
• reflection
• how to treat knowledge skills issues needs to
  become a key policy concern

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To achieve this the organisational environment
must be dynamic responsive
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• The process by which things get done collectively
  within an organisation

Intra-organisational capacity

• increasing demand for more flexible responsive
  management styles means new different
  organisational structures relationships
• networks - informal, more about process than
  procedures structures, based on trust
  reciprocity
• collaboration - genuine exchange of needs, ideas,
  responsibilities and control
• communication - internal communication critical

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• The process by which things get done collectively
  between organisations

Inter-organisational capacity

• networks - informal, more about process than
  procedures structures, based on trust
  reciprocity
• collaboration - genuine exchange of needs,
  ideas, responsibilities and control
• on-going learning reflection needs to be
  supported
• this is where we are experimenting with
  institutional arrangements in New Zealand

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These changes need to be supported by
institutional development
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• the legal regulatory changes that have to be
  made in order to enable organisations agencies
  at all levels in all sectors to enhance their
  capacities

External institutional rules incentives

• sustainable development embedded as paradigm for
  public policy - Local Government Act, Building
  Act, Land Transport Act
• strategies - Sustainable Development Programme of
  Action
• support recognise soft skills
• support informal networks, collaboration
• promote for open communication
• promote support open monitoring evaluation

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How have our institutional arrangements responded
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Urban Form, Design Development (UFDD)

• part of the Auckland Sustainable Cities Programme
• encourage, promote guide more sustainable urban
  form, design development in the Auckland region
• central government, local government, research
  organisations
• acknowledged challenge of embedded processes and
  that it would be a long-term challenge to effect
  any substantial change

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Then why only commit to resourcing a three year
programme?
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Successes in building capacity

• networking - strengthened individual knowledge,
  built trust amongst participants in different
  agencies, became more aware of information
  available who to contact
• however networking was focused on
  inter-organisational rather than
  intra-organisational which considered to limit
  the effectiveness of UFDD
• concerns over impact on network if key
  individuals left their organisations

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Successes in building capacity cont.

• coordination - better understanding of what each
  organisation was doing, identified projects they
  could influence, commissioned projects in areas
  not being addressed
• thorough understanding of what was happening in
  the sustainable urban form, design development
  area
• however this knowledge generally resided with
  individuals rather than the organisations they
  represent

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Successes in building capacity cont.

• built awareness - participants got up to speed
  on issues but was three years enough time to
  effect any change?
• strategic broker - funding a dedicated person to
  facilitate UFDD contributed to its successes
• provide networking opportunities
• facilitate the exchange of ideas
• look for opportunities to progress initiatives
  collaboratively
• manage relationships

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The lessons on-going challenges

• communication
• the lack of this about the wider ASCP to
  politicians, communities, businesses other
  stakeholders seen as limiting success
• need to provide individuals with skills to
  communicate ensure intra-organisational
  processes support communication
• collaboration
• it takes time - need to develop ways to recognise
  the value of collaboration and allow for it to
  happen
• its too risky!
• risk aversion is an impediment - how can our
  institutional arrangements support risk-taking?

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The lessons on-going challenges cont.

• lack of urgency for need to change
• how can the change we driven?
• intra-organisational culture was considered a
  real impediment
• while individuals felt collectively more
  empowered to effect change, this was often not
  supported by the organisations they represented
• adaptive tools processes
• need for adaptive tools that can respond to
  emerging information
• adaptive processes than can handle new
  innovative ideas

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The lessons on-going challenges cont.

• knowledge management
• overwhelming amount of information that needs to
  be managed easily accessible
• resourcing
• many wanted UFDD to continue because of its value
  but unless it is resourced then this is not
  likely to happen
• more widely supported by participating
  organisations
• to ensure less reliance on individuals who might
  move on

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The lessons on-going challenges cont.

• recognising the intangible outputs
• evaluation often focused on tangile outputs such
  as publications, number of workshops
• needs to recognise the intangible outcomes such
  as the strength of relationships networks
• clear path for follow-up
• three years too short to effect change, but
  little thought given to what would happen at end
  of the three year ASCP pilot
• resilience
• how can we embed key ideas so that progress is
  not impacted by political or staff changes?

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Summary

• building institutional capacity to progress
  sustainable development needs to be recognised as
  a key implementation task
• it needs to be included as an explicit process
  when considering policy projects
• but building capacity is only the first step

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Institutionalisation

• process by which changes are sustained
• means that practices become sufficiently regular
  continuous they they amount to institutions
• accepted as the proper way to do things
• shift new practices into core business - from
  pilot to regular practice
• time-limited projects fizzle out, teams scatter
  momentum evaporates
• need to look beyond the end of the project,
  managing not only an exit strategy but driving
  the positive features practices from the
  project into the mainstream, creating new
  institutions

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My next presentation

• How can we take the elements of institutional
  capacity to progress sustainable development
  get them institutionalised?

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So how is the START project addressing
institutional capacity?