Integrating responses to global environmental threats into policies and projects in developing countries

Abstract

This paper provides practical suggestions on how to integrate responses to global environmental threats into policies and projects in developing countries. It does so on the basis of an expert survey both among general development policy practitioners who have in the past been involved in efforts at such 'integration'; and among sectoral experts in two sectors where it will be crucial to integrate responses to global environmental threats: agriculture and energy. The focus is on how to deal with both potential synergies and trade-offs. The paper aims to fill two gaps that remain despite there having been much writing on the practical steps required to address global environmental threats. Firstly, policy makers and project managers in developing countries often lack knowledge on what key generic approaches and instruments could help them address a range of global environmental threats in their work. Secondly, policy makers and project managers face multiple goals between the various global environmental conventions, as well as between the goals of these conventions and other key objectives (notably of an economic kind), resulting in a need to understand how to deal with these multiple (and at times conflicting) goals.