Box 1. Five key principles of designing a PFES M&E policy learning tool Participants agreed that a policy learning tool for PFES M&E should be: • simple. Stakeholders in general, and policy makers in particular, have expressed their strong interest to have simple methods that government officers at all levels can adopt for their daily work. Government agencies also have limited budgets and time constraints for producing timely data as inputs for policy evaluation and refinement, and complex tools are not feasible for them. Many non-state actors such as NGOs, CSOs and private companies also require simple tools to cross-check and monitor the impacts of PFES. • adaptable to the local context. Although PFES is a national PFES policy in Vietnam, each province, district and commune have different concerns, interests, human and financial resources for PFES implementation and M&E. Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all formula. The policy learning tool should be seen as a flexible approach for analyzing and interpreting the impacts of PFES according to local needs, interests and capacities. • low-cost and realistic. In developing countries in general, and in Vietnam in particular, state budgets and budgets allocated to the forestry sector are limited. Budgets allocated for M&E of forestry policies are often not available or are far from sufficient. Son La province generates USD 65 million/year from PFES policies; however, the provincial people's committee only allows the use of a maximum of USD 5,000/year for PFES M&E work. The PFES policy learning tool, therefore, needs to be designed at low cost and be realistic for policy makers to be able to use and adopt. The depth and complexities policy learning tools depend on the financial and human resources available in each province. • able to prioritize M&E environmental services that generate significant revenue. For example, there are many types of forest environmental services, such as: watershed protection for hydropower plants; water supply and quality maintenance for water supply companies; beauty of the landscape and biodiversity, which tourism companies rely on; carbon sequestration and storage, for combating global climate change; and fish nurseries and habitat and other ecosystem services, for aquaculture farmers listed in Decree No. 99/2010/ND-CP on Vietnam national PFES program. However, to date, 99% of total PFES revenue has been generated from watershed protection for hydropower plants. With limited government budget devoted to M&E, prioritizing M&E for environmental services (in this case watershed protection, which generates significant returned revenue) would be a strategic choice. • participatory. Policy learning is a political and social process in which actors interact with each other to discuss, share ideas and negotiate interests. The collaboration of government staff at all levels and across ministries and sectors, buyers and sellers of environmental services, and NGOs throughout all phases of designing and implementing the M&E system will create a ...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.