INECE Promotes Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators in Central America

INECE continued to expand its seminal work on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators through a new initiative in Central America, in cooperation with the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD), by hosting a workshop in Guatemala, on 18-20 September 2007. Seventeen participants from planning offices and the enforcement programs of the environmental ministries of Guatemala, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, and El Salvador met with facilitators from INECE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to explore how performance measurement indicators could help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of environmental compliance and enforcement.

Using course materials developed by INECE's Expert Working Group on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators, facilitators used the first day of the workshop to introduce the three-stage process for developing indicators, emphasizing the importance of designing indicators that are both measurable and feasible. Through a series of exercises, participants developed common terminology to describe the types of indicators used and ways to apply data collection methodology consistently across programs.

The second day used lectures, discussion, and exercises to bring the general discussions into the Central American context. Costa Rica's Environmental Prosecutor, Jos? Pablo Gonzalez, presented an evaluation of the use of environmental enforcement indicators in the region, focusing on what types of indicators are in use and what gaps exist. Participants worked collaboratively to develop a list of possible indicators for three issues of environmental concern to Guatemala and to refine the proposed indicators to a "short list" for initial development. Participants enthusiastically discussed the applicability of the three-stage methodology to assessing their country's enforcement programs and, at the conclusion of the workshop, participants agreed to next steps, including country-level work plans for the development of indicators programs.

On 20-21 September, the facilitators and participants shifted gears to explore the country assessment process using a peer review methodology. As defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), peer review is a process used to examine and evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the policies, laws, regulations, and institutional processes of a country in comparison to its neighbors in a non-confrontational context.

During the peer review presentations, facilitators shared examples of best practices on the theory and utility of peer reviews as a method to conduct program analysis with examples from the European Commission's Compliance and Enforcement Network and from the OECD's non-member country section's work in Armenia.

INECE created a web page for the workshop documents, through its Central America resources forum.

For more information on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators, see http://inece.org/indicators/.