Manual on the Development of Cleaner Production Policies ... - Unido

DEVELOPMENT OF CP POLICY
MODULE 3: CP POLICY DEVELOPMENT CYCLE
specialized institutions (e.g. the Environmental Inspectorate, the Environmental Protection Agency,
the Environment Impact Assessments Office), their participation and views would be valuable. A
person with a legal background and familiarity with the policy-making process would be a great asset.
Last but not least, it could be useful to include a representative of environmental service providers, to
provide the perspective of the environmental consultants.
Once the group is formed, it is recommended that it clearly define at the outset the functions and
objectives of the group and the mechanism for coordinating its work. General objectives should be
discussed and agreed upon, such as: “To prepare within twelve months a draft national CP policy for
approval by the Government”; or, “Integrate CP into the industrial development policy”. At the close
of each meeting, it may be good practice to draw up the agenda for the next meeting, and to agree on
its date and place. If participants have different backgrounds and little experience in CP or the
environment, it might be useful to provide some capacity-building on CP and policy tools.
Practice shows that most of the work in the initial stage of policy development is done by the CP
Centre and the hired experts. Some CP Centres have organized this stage of their work as a separate
project, permitting them to hire experts on sectoral policies where needed. Expertise on policy
development and analysis, sectoral policies, and law and policy instruments have all proven
particularly useful. CP Centres are also in a position to involve all stakeholders and can take
responsibility for a number of logistic, training, information and secretarial functions.
It may not be realistic to rely initially on the Government to lead the process. In fact, the strong
intervention of the Government might actively discourage the voluntary participation of some sectors.
However, it is essential that one entity accepts responsibility to act as coordinator to encourage the
many stakeholders to carry out their roles and to help foster cooperation among parties with
occasionally conflicting agendas.
As mentioned earlier, the key point in the composition of the technical group is to gain access to those
persons within stakeholder institutions who have the power to make decisions. It is unlikely that a
deputy minister or a department director will participate in person in the work (instead, they should be
members of the Steering Committee), but it is also counterproductive to expect a meaningful
contribution from a junior specialist hired fresh out of college. This is why the proposal was made for
a Steering Committee and a separate technical working group. Nevertheless, it is essential to maintain
communication between the technical policy working group and decision makers in the Steering
Committee.
It is important to give recognition to excellent performance and genuine effort on the part of
participants. A well deserved verbal compliment or a short memo to a superior with words of praise
for his or her representative (and perhaps an update on the progress of CP policy development) would
be useful.
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