Evaluating Agri Environmental Policies Design Practice And Results

This workshop proceedings examines evaluation of agri-environmental policies to see how effective policies have been and what policy makers have learned.

This study identifies the most cost-effective policy instruments to address agri-environmental issues in a variety of different situations.

The report includes a selection papers presented at the OECD Workshop on Evaluation of Agri-environmental Policies, held 20-22 June 2011.

Comprehensive, up to date and internationally comparable data on the environmental performance of agriculture in OECD countries.

Defines the operational characteristics of targeted policies and illustrates best practice with concrete examples.

This report examines agricultural policies in Switzerland and makes a series of recommendations concerning regulation, reducing trade barriers, reducing direct payments to farmers, implementing regional policies and addressing sustainability.

Policy evaluation is an important and well-established part of the policy process, facilitating and feeding back to promote the ongoing effectiveness of policies that have been implemented or anticipating policies in the making. Environmental policy is a special case, presenting new complexities uncommon to other areas, which standard evaluation tools are ill-equipped to grapple with. It is also an area that is experiencing rapid growth throughout the world and knowledge is now needed at all levels of government and in NGOs, businesses and other organizations, all of whom are required to assess the effectiveness of their policies.This handbook is the first guide to environmental policy evaluation in practice. Beginning with an introduction to the general principles of evaluation, it explains the particular complexities native to the environmental sphere and provides a comprehensive toolkit of evaluation methods and techniques which the practitioner can employ and refer to again and again. The authors also consider design issues which may face the policy evaluator, including involvement of stakeholders, the sensitivities between them, the a priori assessment of the evaluability of a field, the maximization of the utilization of the evaluations outcomes, and much more. Throughout, the theory is illustrated with practical examples from around the world, making this the essential companion guide for anyone tasked with ensuring that environmental policy fulfils its aims and achieves its potential.