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Introduction

1. Sustainable development challenges - and attempts to address them - often concern issues that present themselves on a global scale. For instance, excessive global greenhouse gas emissions are leading to global warming and climate change, the over-exploitation of fish stocks is leading to population collapses and scarcity, and the over-use of finite or limited stocks of resources such as rare earth metals is leading to shortages and the need for improved systems for efficient use and increased rates of recycling.

2. This means that through their national policies, all countries make a contribution to these collective challenges, whether positive or negative. Whilst the limitations of unilateral sustainable development actions are generally clear, the effective linking and coordination of national approaches remains a real challenge. Unlike at the national level, in which civil society is often able to directly influence a government’s sustainable development policy, it is far more difficult – in conventional multilateral processes – for stakeholders to influence cooperative action on sustainable development issues at the international level. Therefore, countries need to co-operate to achieve real solutions - via universal UN-type agreements as well as through steadily enlarging coalitions of the willing.

3. Hence if in one country an institution like a National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD) - or a similar body - is established, that comes up with policy recommendations for the contribution which that country can make to a more sustainable solution to a particular problem, this will not necessarily be replicated by other countries. The question then is whether such a solution is capable of being generalised (or scaled up) and applied in other countries as well - or whether it is so specific to the first country's conditions that it is not readily transferable. In the worst case, the national level ‘solution’ could actually make matters worse in other countries by effectively exporting or outsourcing more of the global problem to other places.

4. Dissemination of successful practices is therefore a matter of mindful governance; taking into account what works where and why (or why not). This is not only a matter of national/regional physical conditions, but also one of culture and tradition. NCSDs - as well as sub-national sustainable development bodies in some cases - generally understand these specific factors as they are usually in good contact with many different stakeholder groups within their societies. Governments, therefore, with the support of NCSDs, ought to be encouraged to take these global dissemination issues into account when they design elaborate national sustainable development policies.

5. Whilst the concept of sustainable development has both a temporal dimension (‘now and later’) and a geographical one (‘here and elsewhere’), the latter does not always mean that NSDCs are able or prepared to share their lessons learned with others. Similarly, many NCSDs still do not have the capacity (capabilities and resources, including staff) to contribute to efforts around the global dissemination and ‘scaling up’ of good practices. In some regions of the world they have been able to co-operate to a limited extent on regional approaches to sustainability (e.g. through the work of the European Network of Environment and Sustainable development Advisory Councils – EEAC), but global co-operation has been more difficult. The establishment of the new Global Network of NCDSs during the Rio+20 Summit in June 2012 provides an opportunity to develop global co-operation more systematically.

6. Moreover, the Global Network intends to facilitate collaboration between NCSDs, and foster the transfer of solutions to particular sustainability problems, or help NCSDs to take potential

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or real conflicts of interest into account when designing policy recommendations. In other words, exploring how sustainable development policies and practices in one country can be of optimal benefit to other countries and help address international sustainable development issues, and how NCSDs can be supportive agents in this regard.

7. This paper therefore:

• Discusses the governance of scaling up, looking at different factors which affect the transferability of successful sustainable development practices from one place to another;

• Explores examples of mechanisms for scaling up, suggesting some key factors to be taken into consideration by NCSDs looking to improve coordination between national sustainable development priorities and international sustainable development concerns; and

• Suggests some practical activities the Global Network could facilitate to assist NCSDs with scaling up efforts.

The governance of scaling up

8. Creating best practices in one country or region alone is not enough to make others believe they should and could follow such strategies/examples, if appropriate. It is therefore necessary to explore new ways of enabling decision makers to formulate and exhibit dissemination approaches which take into account the national or subnational situation of other countries and the collective action required to tackle global problems (such as resource use/scarcity and climate change), as well as developing mechanisms/spaces/fora in which this collaboration could take place. The challenge is therefore not only what should be done to achieve more sustainable societies, but also how scaling up of good ideas can be organised. This is therefore a governance challenge.

9. Scaling up could therefore be assisted by creating/strengthening additional layers of governance - above the national level but below the inherently constrained and slow international/UN level. Coalitions of the willing (consisting of/supported by relevant actors such as businesses, regional bodies and civil society organisations etc.) can work together to address mutual priority areas across geographic areas and should in theory be able to agree upon approaches and systems to do so more easily and quickly than through conventional (UN) channels. Nonetheless, there will still need to be some oversight/attempts to ensure that such approaches, even if they are mutually beneficial to all parties directly involved, account for/limit unforeseen negative impacts on the sustainable development of other nations and stakeholders which are not engaged in these initiatives.

10. Different cultures and traditions tend to prefer different governance approaches. For the challenge of scaling up or dissemination of successful sustainability practices this implies that a good understanding is needed of the particular national and local contexts (e.g. values and traditions), and the frameworks of people(s) and institutions who are exchanging ideas and strive for collaboration. Good examples of national sustainable development policies are unlikely to be successfully transposed to other places or scaled up (regionally or globally) if governments – whether through NCSDs or otherwise - do not cooperate to ensure that these policies are (made) compatible with existing social norms, governance systems, and the characteristics of the national/regional/local sustainability challenges.

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11. To achieve this compatibility, scaled up national sustainable development policies are therefore likely to require a capacity building and development aspect, to foster the necessary understanding of differing values and traditions. ‘Capacity’ should be defined broadly; on one hand this refers to institutional, human resources (staff), financial and technical capacity, on the other hand it has an important qualitative dimension: networking capabilities, the capability to collaborate, to resolve conflicts and create mutual gains, to deal with complexity and to interpret available knowledge.

12. It also requires recognition of the fact that for most people, the world is multi-polar and pluralist place characterised by diversity. Whilst this may mean that it is increasingly difficult to reach global agreements (e.g. on combatting climate change), and that one-size-fits-all solutions are rare, there are nonetheless a wide range of effective national-scale policies and programmes which may have the scope to be scaled up.1

Research on the diffusion of environmental policy innovations suggests that we can distinguish between ‘horizontal’ diffusion (the accumulation of individual cases of imitation learning, leading to a de facto majority regime), and ‘vertical’ diffusion (direct transfer of ideas or programs from the national to the supranational level).2 Horizontal diffusion can lead to a “critical mass of adopters that make it difficult for any single government to openly refuse adopting” an approach. These are therefore two potential routes for achieving scalability which NCSDs can consider as rough guides for delivering policy solutions on scale. The concept of horizontal diffusion has similarities with the transition theory which predicts that (sustainability) innovation begins in local “niches” and if successful leads to “regimes” and later to innovation “landscapes”.3 A condition for scaling up therefore might be for NCSDs to find niches that are at least beginning to establish supporting regimes, or in other words, national policy programmes which have been replicated in another country, or bi-lateral or regional initiatives that have already proven to be effective. What may be most effective, thus, is an integrated diffusion approach drawing on both the horizontal and the vertical. The aim being to catalyse regime change through the direct, targeted and purposeful support and transfer of ideas developed in isolated niches through specific mechanisms (e.g. global networks and flows of best practice learning).

13. In summary, therefore, the transferability of successful practices from one place to another depends on:

• National and local contexts - certain systems of governance will be better suited to some countries and cultures than others. Natural resource and geographical characteristics will contribute to shaping priorities and policies;

• Capacity – both the strength and effectiveness of systems, laws and institutions (both national and local), as well as the human resources and skills of those that operate within these structures.

• Diffusion – the ability to develop transferable ideas which take into account national and local contexts and capacities. Specific mechanisms and initiatives will be required to facilitate this process.

1 This approach which includes metagovernance, is coined as ‘transgovernance’ (In ’t Veld 2011, Meuleman 2012). 2 Busch, Jörgens and Tews (2006), in: Jänicke & Jacob (2006). 3 Grin, Rotmans and Schot (2011).

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Examples of mechanisms for scaling up

14. Moving from theory to practice, it is possible to distinguish three broad clusters of governance mechanisms for the scaling up of successful sustainable development practices:

a) Collaborative mechanisms (horizontal, inclusive, consensus based)

b) Voluntary (bottom-up) and market-based mechanisms

c) Coercive, rule-based mechanisms (top-down)

These three governance styles are each discussed in turn.

(a) Collaborative mechanisms for scaling up 15. Identifying existing practices and priorities. Central to the facilitation of scaling up will be

the collation of what individual countries perceive to be key issues for sustainable development and the strategies and programmes which they have already put in place to address them. NCSDs, where they exist, are likely to be one of the best sources of this information, and the Global Network could therefore be used as a space to house this data and make it accessible to all countries. More specifically, this could include NCSDs: sharing national sustainable development policies and experiences; disclosing information and best practices on setting up international peer review missions; collectively publishing research and reviews of policy programmes; examining options for the standardisation of reporting and verification schemes; and exploring international workshops and capacity building programmes for Council representatives to learn from one another and share ideas for collaboration.

16. Going a step further, new governance arrangements could be created to facilitate the scaling up of national practices. Yet despite the apparent mutual benefits of scaling up through more systematic approaches, the complexity of this task means that it may be preferential to exploit all other options for taking action before this course is pursued. Moreover these new arrangements are likely to depend upon certain levels of international cooperation and coordination already being in place. . As a consequence, the incidence of such new governance arrangements is still relatively low and their effectiveness remains mixed. Past/current initiatives such as Local Agenda21, the NCSDs, and corporate social responsibility, however, are encouraging examples whose strengths and weaknesses in terms of scaling up could be assessed and collectively shared, despite the aforementioned issues around complexity and large situational differences.

17. National Sustainable Development Strategies (NSDSs) appear to be most effective when those who are addressed feel at least some ownership, and are prepared to take up their part of the collective responsibility. This is a lesson learned from earlier national sustainable development programmes and led to the emergence of ‘3rd generation’ NSDSs. These NSDSs do not just outline programmes and define targets and timetables with assessing and reporting tools, but are adding value through designing functionalities and models for action by and interaction between government and parliament, as well as NCSDs, civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders. This is where sharing good practices could be of primary importance.

Such a new approach for more broadly engaging and stimulating action from all stakeholders is currently being attempted in Finland: The NSDS has been in place since 1998, with a

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progress report in 2003 and a revised strategy developed in 2006. In 2012 a new revision to the strategy was launched, with the guiding question: As sustainable development is a collaboration of the government and other actors in society, how can they commit to a common vision, goals, targets and actions? This new blueprint for sustainable development known as “Finland we want 2050” will involve specific state responsibilities and programmes, as well as outline various functional commitments from other stakeholders in society.4 The multi-stakeholder processes led by Finland’s NCSD to create this updated NSDS aims to be completed by June 2013, resulting in the adoption of a 'new social contract' between state and society.

It will also be useful to analyse the genesis of NSDSs in different global regions, and how they are aligned with other overarching strategies. In Africa, for example, a number of NSDSs are based on Poverty Reduction Strategies, to which an environmental dimension has only been added in recent years and remains underdeveloped in many countries.

18. Peer reviews are another best practice tool. Common in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries context and used for sharing experience regarding environmental policies, peer reviews can be an efficient tool for advancing national strategies around sustainable development. A NSDS peer review model developed by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), after being successfully applied in France, has been since been adopted by the European Commission as part the 2006 EU sustainable development strategy. A similar approach has been promoted by UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) in other countries such as Korea for example, based on the shared-learning approach. This would suggest that there is significant scope for the further scaling up of NSDSs peer reviews coordinated by NCSDs.

19. In response to the EU call, the Netherlands Council for Research on Spatial Planning, Nature and the Environment (RMNO) organised a peer review on the NSDS in 2007, with representatives from civil society, business, science and government, from Finland, Germany and South-Africa all providing inputs on how it could be improved. Similarly, Germany’s 2013 international peer review will focus issues such as green business practices and sustainability management, and increasing the effectiveness of sustainable development strategies. It will also examine issues related to global interdependence, which may well include discussions pertaining to the scalability of its national sustainable development policies.

20. Participation is a term which can have many different meanings. It can range from mere consultation to co-decision; it can be completely open, or only open to selected stakeholders. Participation can create ownership and support for sustainable development pathways, which in turn helps to increase acceptance of new practices. This requires that certain preconditions are fulfilled, including, inter alia, good management of expectations, capacity development mechanisms, and the existence of a ‘secure environment’ in which participants feel free to communicate. Participation and responsibility go hand in hand. Who participates can determine which actors and stakeholders are responsible for implementation efforts around NSDSs, therefore this will be a crucial factor to get right if collaborative mechanisms for scaling up are to be successful.

Good examples include the extensive use of the internet for public consultations, such as those undertaken by the UK and by the European Commission. The latter conducts web-based consultations on a vast array of policy proposals, which includes a system of ex-ante impact assessments for proposed legislation. Of course this is not yet feasible everywhere in the

4 The approach is largely inspired by the report and recommendations of the German Advisory Council for Global Change (WBGU): World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability (2011).

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world. Examples for participation in NSDSs outside Europe include Zambia, where the writing of the chapters of the NSDS was to a large extend carried out by ‘sector advisory groups’, composed of government, civil society, private sector and development partner actors.5 Nevertheless, a significant challenge following such participatory processes is often how to maintain momentum. Where they exist, NCSDs can and do play the role of ‘guardians of the NSDS momentum’, and ensure the continuity of the dialogue between government and other stakeholders.

21. Education is a key foundation for sustainable development. NCSDs should connect to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).6 An ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ platform could undertake and collate research looking at the ability of education programmes and curriculums to change behaviour (of both the public and government actors), comparing results from different regions and types of country. This could provide NCSDs with an evidence platform upon which to influence national education policies. For example, the inclusion of education programmes which teach students about the full life-cycle of products, could help change consumption patterns, increase the three Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) and in turn put pressure on governments to implement policies to enable and expedite these practices.

Children are not just obvious stakeholders because sustainable development is about securing the rights of future generations, but also because children are natural system thinkers with the potential to understand the complexity of sustainability challenges.7 Working with children should therefore be high up the agenda.

(b) Voluntary and market-based mechanisms 22. A number of different voluntary and market-based mechanisms are currently being utilised at

the national and regional levels to incentivise both governments and businesses to engage in more sustainable practices. Scaling up could be encouraged by creating new initiatives (involving NCSDs) which induce decision/behaviour change through the use of market mechanisms, or seeing Councils adapting/working with existing initiatives to explore how they themselves can be scaled up. Many of these mechanisms have been developed and/or promoted as ways in which countries can transition to green economies, with there being a great deal of existing literature for NCSDs to draw upon in this regard.8 Some of these mechanisms include, inter alia:

• Ecotax; • Certification schemes; • Feed in tariffs (FiTs); and • Cap and trade systems.

5 Economic Commission for Africa (2011), National Strategies for Sustainable Development in Africa: A Sixteen-Country Assessment

6 http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-sustainable-development/ 7 See: www.missingchapter.org 8 Such as the UNEP publication ‘Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication – A Synthesis for Policy Makers’, http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/Portals/88/documents/ger/GER_synthesis_en.pdf

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23. Several European countries – such as the UK and Switzerland - have committed to developing green economy roadmaps.9 These roadmaps - involving NCSDs when they exist - detail some of the particular mechanisms the government is currently using/plans to use to make their economies more sustainable. These strategies could potentially be another source of information for NCSDs to share via the Global Network.

(c) Coercive, rule-based mechanisms 24. Guarantees for public participation and access to justice, such as the UN Economic

Commission for Europe’s (ECE) Aarhus and Espoo Conventions, are not only essential provisions for transparency and accountability, but stimulate the exchange of ideas and practices across borders, thus enabling the uptake of good practices.

25. Understanding the impacts of decisions through regulations such as impact assessments engenders transparency and producing better outcomes to the decision making process. Decision-making at all levels has profited from using impact assessment mechanisms, which are usually required by law and contain legal guarantees with regards to transparency and consultation. Good examples are environmental impact assessment (EIA) for infrastructure projects, and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for (usually government) plans and programmes. These mechanisms significantly increase stakeholder participation (including the public) from the very beginning of the process, transparency and more knowledge-based decisions. As a consequence, environmental and social impacts have in general become major considerations in economy-driven decisions. These developments are not simply confined to Europe. In Ghana, for example, SEA has ensured that environmental concerns in plans and programmes listed in the NSSD were identified, assessed and given due attention through a consultative and participatory approach.10

Going one step further are sustainability impact assessments (SIA) such as those practiced by the European Commission since around 2004 under the neutral name ‘Impact Assessment’. This legislation means that all European Commission policies and legal proposals are assessed for their impact on all three dimensions of sustainable development; the social, economic and environmental. In the proposal for a 7th Environmental Action Programme, the European Commission has asked all EU Member States to introduce such a procedure for their policy initiatives.11

Conclusions

26. This paper makes the case for a new role for NCSDs, namely contributing to scaling up of successful national and subnational practices, which is a key condition for speeding up sustainable development. The governance landscape post-Rio+20 and within the post-2015 development agenda is still forming and will take time to consolidate. Many of the post-Rio processes involve re-shaping international sustainable development governance structures

9 UK Green Economy Roadmap: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/Horizontal_Services_files/Enabling_the_transition_to_a_Green_Economy__Main_D.pdf 10 Economic Commission for Africa (2011), National Strategies for Sustainable Development in Africa: A Sixteen-Country Assessment

11 COM(2012)710 final, 29.11.2012, page 32.

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and therefore the period can be seen as a working environment conducive to new ideas and regulatory competition. Yet even in the absence of formal UN structures and global legal mechanisms on sustainable development-related issues, the NCSDs involved in the Global Network, as a coalition of the willing, could be well suited to take this agenda forward. This will nonetheless require them to build relationships and share ideas, using the communications opportunities and platforms such as those provided by the Global Network, and potentially lead to formal partnerships and bilateral or even multilateral agreements on mutually beneficial sustainable development approaches and initiatives.

27. Against this background, and based on the analysis presented above, it can be concluded that consideration of the following four factors will likely be beneficial to creating the conditions for NCSDs to scale up sustainability practices:

1) Identifying existing practices and priorities – mapping what individual countries perceive to be key issues for sustainable development and the strategies and programmes which they have already put in place to address them.

2) Governance - The challenge is therefore not only what should be done to achieve more sustainable societies, but also how scaling up of good ideas can be organised. This is therefore a governance challenge. Putting in place the right governance structures will be fundamental implementing sustainability solutions at scale.

3) Plurality of Mechanisms - Scaling up must taking into account different national and local contexts. Therefore, direct, targeted and purposeful support and transfer of ideas developed in isolated niches through specific mechanisms which take into account differing situations and needs based on an understanding of the challenges to hand.

4) Capacity Building and Participation - There is a need for capacity building and development programmes to foster the necessary understanding of the differing contexts, values and traditions across places and time. Similarly, participation is a term which can have many different meanings. However, participation and responsibility go hand in hand. Who participates can determine which actors and stakeholders are responsible for implementation efforts around NSDSs, therefore this will be a crucial factor to get right if collaborative mechanisms for scaling up are to be successful.

28. The barrier to sustainability is not that we do not know what to do, but that we are not doing it. The solutions to the world’s problems are known, and in many cases already existing in niches on a micro-scale. The challenge therefore becomes scaling these existing solutions up and rolling them out globally. NCSDs are existing intuitions in various countries around the globe which are extremely well-placed to facilitate but also stimulate this process as well. However, NCSDs themselves require a more advanced programme of coordination to undertake this challenge.

Practical activities the Global Network could facilitate to assist NCSDs with scaling up

29. The previous sections of this paper have explored the governance-related factors that need to be taken into consideration when exploring mechanisms for the scaling-up of national sustainable development approaches, and listed some practical examples of initiatives which could potentially be scaled up. The question now, therefore, is what specific functions could the Global Network of NCSDs provide - as a platform for communication, learning and

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collaboration between National Councils - to support NCSDs looking to further this objective? In this regard, three types of situation may arise within the co-operation arrangements of the Network that could be conducive to furthering a scaling up agenda:

• Dissemination of a report or study from one NCSD to a wider audience in other countries;

• Parallel studies by two or more NCSDs on a subject of common interest, with opportunities for cross-fertilisation of the work; and

• Joint working on a regional or global issue aimed at a regional or international audience.

30. Dissemination - As discussed previously, identifying existing priorities and practices of NCSDs will be an important first step. Basic information about the form and functions of all NCSDs (including examples of recent activities) is currently being collected by the secretariat of the Global Network. Some reports and studies by individual NCSDs may contain analyses and recommendations that could be highly relevant in the circumstances of other countries in their region or indeed to other countries throughout the world. The Network should provide a convenient means for an NCSD to draw such work to the attention of other NCSDs in the Network and to encourage dialogue and feedback about the findings and recommendations.

Members of the Network might be invited to identify which of their reports from the past three (for example) years may have potential interest of this kind to other NCSDs, to provide a one-page abstract of such reports for posting on the Network website (with information about how to obtain copies of the full report) and a contact point to answer queries or arrange further dialogue about the findings. This could potentially be achieved through the creation of an online platform in which NCSDs and other stakeholders are encouraged to submit what they consider to be scalable examples of sustainable development activities, which can then be collated and made readily available for all to access.

31. Parallel studies - Sometimes a particular issue becomes topical in several countries at the same time, resulting in several different NCSDs deciding to study it at concurrently. In such cases it may be possible to enrich the work of the separate NCSDs if they are in contact with one another and share some of their information, analysis and recommendations. The Network should facilitate such parallel working and mutual learning.

Members of the Network might be invited to share details of their future work programmes and thereby to identify opportunities for such mutually beneficial parallel working. One possibility would be for the secretariat to invite NCSDs to provide any publicly available information about their future work programmes at the start of each year, to analyse the submitted information by topic and to draw attention to cases where NCSDs are planning to work on the same or similar topics so that they can then consider whether they want to set up any parallel working arrangements between themselves.

32. Joint working on regional or international topics - Most NCSDs have a mandate to work primarily on national sustainability issues. But as discussed previously, full analysis of an issue often requires the NCSD to consider the regional or global contexts and what needs to be done at these levels to complement national action, or conversely what an individual country needs to do to implement a regional or global agreement. At present, countries are considering what they need to do to implement the outcomes from the Rio+20 Summit and the recent UNFCCC Conference in Doha for example. Some NCSDs are likely to already be working around aspects of these processes, and others may become involved as international negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda progress.

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The international steering group of the Network working with the secretariat might usefully identify topics in these international agendas where many or all member Councils could have useful contributions to make. Such topics might for example include the development of the new universal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mandated at Rio +20 and the way in which they should interact with national strategies, policies and priorities. One approach might be for the secretariat to be invited to conduct a survey amongst member NCSDs on this topic based on a series of structured questions, to collate the results and then provide support for the construction of a common NCSDs recommendation to the international negotiations if there is sufficient consensus to support such a concerted position.