Estratègies per al desenvolupament sostenible - Generalitat de ...

4.4.4. Analysing sustainable mechanisms and processes. We have stated that astrategy is as much a set of continuing mechanisms or processes –that providethe facility to debate, plan, experiment, monitor and review sustainabledevelopment– as it is an agreed vision or set of goals. The challenge, then,is to develop an inventory of the ‘mechanisms and processes that work’ andtheir links, and to improve these links in the context of an NSSD. Suchmechanisms may include both long-standing and recent introductions, bothformal and informal mechanisms, and both routine and one-off approaches.Those component mechanisms need first to be listed, and then assessed:List the mechanisms that currently contribute to the NSSD, or list candidatemechanisms if an NSSD is not yet in place. Assessors must be open to thevariety of sources of such mechanisms. For example, while an existingNSSD might have a formal communications programme, changes inawareness of sustainable development might actually result from othermechanisms that are not connected to the strategy.Describe each mechanism in terms of: its legal setting/mandate; the principlesfollowed; responsibilities for the mechanism; the main “users” of themechanism; resources actually applied to it in practice; and any contentionsor major dilemmas associated with it.Assess the quality of component mechanisms.Assess the legal framework for sustainable development in which keymechanisms operate: the substance of the law, the application of the lawand constraints.Assess the economic context and conditions which will determine how anymechanism affects the motivations and behaviour of producers andconsumers, and thus to a large extent, its ultimate effectiveness.Assess how all the mechanisms fit together: their gaps, overlaps andcoordination, especially if the task is to bring together promising mechanismsinto an NSSD.The secretariat may undertake some of these tasks itself; but it will more likelyneed to commission and coordinate others to carry out the assessments.149