Decentralisation and environment
Local government environmental tasks and environmental aspects of
physical and development planning
Why
In many countries the responsibility for the actual implementation and enforcement of the national
environmental legislation is devolved to the local government on different levels. In principle, this is a
good approach because it provides local government with the opportunity to prioritise their resources
based on their knowledge on the local environmental conditions and on the local developments in
general.
However, in most developing countries local government do not have the necessary capacity making
them able to actually coping properly with this responsibility. Typically, local governments lack capacity
in terms of number of human resources, qualifications of the human resources available, institutional
set-up and financial resources. In addition, local government are not capable of monitoring neither the
local environmental developments nor their own performance in environmental management. This
means that local governments cannot contribute properly to providing a general overview of the
development in the environmental situation nationally and that environmental consequences of local
development initiatives stay more or less unknown.
As a consequence many international donors support reform processes in developing countries within
the field of environmental management. Typically, the purpose of the support is to devolve more
functions to decentralised levels, to increase environmental awareness and to improve coordination
and information exchange in environmental management and decision making both vertically
(between administrative levels) and horizontally (between sectors having an adverse effect on the
environment) in order to in these ways to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the
environmental administration at all levels.
What
In general, LGDK can support programming and project cycle management of environmental
assistance. This includes design of environmental assistance programmes on national or sector level,
programme appraisals, reviews of projects and evaluations of programme progress.
In addition on the more particular level, LGDK can support environmental management within the
following fields:
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Allocation of tasks and responsibilities in environmental management in general between the
different administrative levels
Cooperation between different administrative levels regarding Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA), environmental permits and inspections
Allocation of tasks and responsibilities in environmental management in general between the
different administrative levels
Cooperation between different administrative levels regarding Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA), environmental permits and inspections
Openness and transparency in the field of environmental management
Mapping of capacity development needs in environment (staff and institution wise)
Strategies for capacity development in environment (CDE)
Issues of financing of local environmental management
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Issues of monitoring:
 Indicator systems for monitoring local environmental developments
 Indicators for monitoring of environmental management performance
 Indicators and approach for monitoring of CDE-strategies
Issues of monitoring
Reporting on local environmental developments to support local (and national) decision making
How
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Communicating Danish and international experience on developing an effective and efficient
environmental management system (adjusted to the local circumstances)
Often in cooperation with partners with the relevant technical environmental experience, where
LGDK can handle the governance aspects of environmental projects and programs
Designing and evaluation of donor programmes and projects within the field of decentralisation
and environmental management
A brief illustration
In 2009, LGDK assisted in formulating the final Danida-funded environment programme for Bhutan.
The five-year programme targeted support to local government environment management in
alignment with the overall decentralisation policy of Bhutan and the joint Local Governance Support
Programme. The formulation team outlined a dual approach to decentralised environmental planning
at district and gewog (block) level consisting of 1) Sector budget support to environmental schemes
under the gewog local development plans and 2) capacity development targeting the district
environment committees and staff as well as support to climate change initiatives.
In 2008, LGDK conducted a workshop in Vietnam on Environment and decentralisation. Both in
Vietnam and in Denmark the implementation of a considerable part of the environmental legislation is
decentralised. At the workshop, the Vietnamese and the Danish system were compared to each other
and it was discussed if and how lessons learned in Denmark could be made useful in the Vietnamese
context. Participants in the workshop included staff from the Ministry of Environment, a number of
sector ministries, staff from environmental units in provinces and municipalities and some university
people.