Governments today are faced with a difficult task. They need to design policies that not only address the environmental, economic and social needs of today but also policy that is flexible enough to quickly adapt to our rapidly changing world. Traditional policy was designed to provide strict rules and guidelines. But our new world requires a new way of addressing complex and dynamic change.
Adaptive policy is designed to help policy-makers help people. Crafting policy that can quickly adapt to a range of anticipated and unanticipated conditions is the goal.
IISD and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) India are working on a four-year research project on adaptive policy-making with funds provided by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The book, Adaptive Policies Guidebook, will be published in 2008.
