#34: Performance measurement and indicators

Building capacity and facilitating co-ordinated actions across different levels of government can be achieved through performance measurement. Performance indicators can reinforce linkages among policy stakeholders at different levels of government and contribute to learning and  capacity-building.

Performance measurement systems and indicators allow to quantify the efficiency and effectiveness of a system in place. It must be developed according to systems’ characteristics, based on performance goals in a collaborative process involving stakeholders and technical actors.

Sustainability is defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). For development to be sustainable, it must take account of social, ecological, and economic factors (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 2015).

 

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. (2015). Integrating the Three Dimensions of Sustainable Development. A Framework and Tools. Bangkok.

World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future.

and environmental performance should be included. It can be a basis for dialogue, discussion and acquisition of knowledge, and helps a community of actors identify common reference points.

In the Netherlands, the ministerial department of

Water management refers to the activities of analysing and monitoring water resources, as well as developing and implementing measures to keep the state of a water resource within what has been negotiated as desirable bounds (Pahl-Wostl, 2015).

Pahl-Wostl, C. (2015). Water Governance in the Face of Global Change—From Understanding to Transformation. Wiesbaden: Springer International Publishing.

agreed with the department of Nature and fisheries management on a project to integrate policies on the management of the Dutch section of the North Sea. In order to have a better understanding of the North Sea ecosystem and define exactly their policy targets in quantitative terms and consequently evaluate the effect of such policies, part of the project was dedicated to the definition of various ecological indicators for biodiversity and ecological functioning. Performance and measurement indicators were selected to be relevant to both the water and nature policies and in such a way that the relationship between the indicators and the specific characteristic of the ecosystem could be clearly expressed. The whole set of indicators provided a comprehensive view on the ecosystem and was shared with the other coastal countries of the North sea under the scope of the Sea Task Force and the Oslo and Paris Commission (OSPAR).