Lehtonen, Markku (2005) OECD Environmental Performance Review Programme: accountability (f)or learning? Evaluation, 11 (2). pp. 169-188. ISSN 1356-3890

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

The growing interest in evaluation as a new form of environmental governance stems from two developments: the movement towards New Public Management, and the search for new policy instruments for managing complexity, uncertainty and plurality of values in the pursuit of sustainable development. The former holds increasing accountability as the main purpose of evaluation, while the latter stresses the importance of learning. These approaches are often considered as mutually exclusive, but recent literature has underlined their complementary roles in policy making. This article examines to what extent the OECD Environmental Performance Review (EPR) programme has succeeded in combining the objectives of learning and accountability within a single evaluation framework. he EPRs have been relatively successful in avoiding the negative side-effects often associated with traditional performance measurement, but have usually ailed to generate broad debate. Focusing on enhancing accountability through social learning would probably contribute to overcoming this problem.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The role of evaluation of environmental performance programmes has been shifting from static `accountability¿, with adverse side-effects, to a more dynamic `learning¿ approach (feeding back into the policy process). The paper asks whether the two are incompatible, taking the example of the top-down peer review system developed by the OECD.
Schools and Departments:	University of Sussex Business School > SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit
Depositing User:	Markku Lehtonen
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 18:20
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2012 18:57
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/15864

📧 Request an update