Policy Making
Policy advice functions as one of three legs on which the EfD environmental economics capacity building is founded, together with research and academic training. Through various means it strives to build a bridge between research, and policy planning and decision making. The rationale behind developing a strong component of policy advice is the current gap between academic research and government policy formulation. Typically, the two areas of work rarely meet or influence each other. This is a missed opportunity.
In an effort to reduce this gap, the Environmental Economics Unit (EEU) has established a Helpdesk for Environmental Economics. It functions as a conveyor of research results to policy planning and decision making on issues relevant to poverty reduction and sustainable economic development and environmental management. The Helpdesk targets the actors of Swedish development cooperation, but it interacts with other development partners as well.
The EfD initiative strives to build strong policy advice, which is research based and relevant for policy planning and implementation in developing countries. By developing and strengthening research-based policy advice, the EfD research and training components may have synergetic effects and may have a wider use than otherwise would have been the case.
