Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

COLLAGES OF BETTERMENT 205INFORMING GOVERNANCE? SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING ININDONESIA AND THE PHILIPPINESAdnan A. HezriBackground: governance and sustainabledevelopmentThe 21 st century has been dubbed the century of theenvironment because human economic activities havecaused unprecedented changes to global ecosystems(Lubchenco 1998). Concomitant with the globalenvironmental changes throughout the 20 th centuryare changes in society’s response to emerging ecologicalthreats (McNeill 2000; Simmons 1996). Two broadwaves of the institutionalization of environmentalpolicies can be identified (Janicke and Weidner1997). The first occurred in the late 1960s to early1970s. The second wave came in the aftermath of theBrundtland Report in 1987 and the Rio Conferencein 1992, bringing in its wake the worldwide spread ofnew or revised institutional arrangements for effectiveenvironmental protection, with its new focus on theconcept of sustainable development or sustainability(Kraft and Vig 1994).The two waves of institutionalization are different in termsof policy content and corresponding policy instruments.The policy content of the first wave can be seen as areaction to early forms of environmental threats. Eventhough predominantly driven by domestic policies, thefirst wave diffused internationally following the UnitedNations Conference on Human Environment, held inStockholm in 1972. The second wave, in contrast, wasa direct response to global ecological challenges, suchas biodiversity loss and climate change. Dovers (1997;c.f. Lafferty 2004) argues that these are sustainabilityproblems, ‘different in degree and in kind’ from thediscrete environmental threats that were characteristicof the first wave. Arguably, sustainability is a higherordersocial goal equivalent to democracy and justice.The number of policy instruments that governmentshave applied has been more pervasive in the second wavemainly to address the integrative logic of sustainabledevelopment, which is to combine environmental,social and economic factors and goals.The shift to multiple instruments is also characteristicof government reorganizing itself by engaging withother parties, suggesting the shift from government togovernance in tackling long-term goals for sustainability.Environmental governance is synonymous withinterventions aimed at changes in environment-relatedincentives, knowledge, institutions, decision makingand behaviors. More specifically, governance refersto the set of regulatory processes, mechanisms andorganizations through which political actors influenceenvironmental actions and outcomes. It includes theactions of the state and, in addition, encompasses actorssuch as civil society, businesses and NGOs. Governanceis, therefore, not the same as government (Rhodes1996).Indicators are important for decisionmaking andgovernance. With the purported aim of measuring andreporting on progress towards sustainable development,variants of sustainability indicator systems have beendeveloped by governments and civil societies spanningmultiple scales of governance (Parris and Kates 2003;Hezri and Dovers 2006). In theory, by integratinginformation from the environmental, social andeconomic domains and then feeding knowledge anddirection back to a correspondingly wide range ofpolicy sectors, sustainability indicator systems mayfacilitate cross-agency and portfolio policy connectivity.Additionally, information such as sustainabilityindicators, if appropriately designed and used, maymediate the connection between the state and civilsociety. In this regard, sustainability indicators assumethe role of a tool for social justice.Before the emergence of contemporary ideas ofsustainability, development indicators such as GrossDomestic Product (GDP) per capita and the HumanDevelopment Index (HDI) were used for measuringprogress, directing policy and allocating resources.Indicators are also intended to enhance transparency,accountability and democracy (Solesbury 2002).If made available in the public domain throughenhanced socialization (that is, by involving users in thedevelopment and use of indicator systems), they mayallow civil society to provide political feedback thatencourages decisionmakers to connect decisions to thecontents of the indicators. There is an expectation thatby opening up more communication channels throughthe development and use of indicators, we will establisha public sphere, an agora in which to discuss and workAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows