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Creating Adaptive Policies: A Guide for Policy-making in an Uncertain World

» Darren A. Swanson (Editor), Suruchi Bhadwal (Editor), Sage, IDRC, 2009. Book, 186 pages, copyright: Sage, IDRC, ISBN 978-81-321-0147-5

Comprehensive in scope and grounded in actual case studies, this new contribution to public policy management, backed by three expert sustainability organizations, is a ‘how-to' guide wrapped in clear and thoughtful analytical insight.

– David McLaughlin (President and CEO Canada's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy)
A critically important read for policy-makers confronted with a ‘perfect storm' of global economic, social and environmental crises.

– Jim MacNeill (Secretary General of the World Commission on Environment and Development and President of MacNeill and Associates)
This is an essential toolkit for those in the business of making, recommending, learning about or teaching sensible and sound policy.

– Margaret Catley-Carlson (United Nations Secretary General Advisory Board on Water, Patron, Global Water Partnership, and Chair, World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Water Security)
Today's policy-maker has a tough job to do. Policies that cannot perform effectively under today's complex, dynamic and uncertain conditions run the risk of not achieving their intended purpose. Instead of helping, they may actually hinder the ability of individuals, communities and businesses to cope with and adapt to change.

Creating Adaptive Policies: A Guide for Policy-making in an Uncertain World is the very first book to distill the principles of complex adaptive systems and adaptive management into practical guidance for policy-makers. It describes the concept of adaptive policy-making and presents seven tools for developing such policies. Based on hundreds of interviews from over a dozen policy case studies, this book serves as a pragmatic guide for policy-makers by elaborating these seven tools. It will be an invaluable information resource for technical policy-makers, politicians and their advisors, as well as for those studying politics and international relations.

The Editors

• Darren Swanson is a Senior Project Manager working with the Measurement and Assessment Program at the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Canada.

• Suruchi Bhadwal is an Area Convener of the Centre for Global Environment Research at The Energy and Resources Institute in India.

Notes

Table of Contents

• Foreword David Runnalls and Rajendra K. Pachauri

• Chapter 1. The Need for Adaptive Policies Henry David Venema and John Drexhage

• Chapter 2. Seven Guidelines for Policy-making in an Uncertain World Darren Swanson, Stephan Barg, Stephen Tyler, Henry David Venema, Sanjay Tomar, Suruchi Bhadwal, Sreeja Nair, Dimple Roy and John Drexhage

• Chapter 3. Integrated and Forward-looking Analysis Darren Swanson and Sanjay Tomar

• Chapter 4. Multi-stakeholder Deliberation Stephen Tyler

• Chapter 5. Automatic Policy Adjustment Suruchi Bhadwal, Stephan Barg and Darren Swanson

• Chapter 6. Enabling Self-organization and Social Networking Dimple Roy, Sreeja Nair and Henry David Venema

• Chapter 7. Decentralization of Decision-making Stephan Barg and Stephen Tyler

• Chapter 8. Promoting Variation Sreeja Nair and Dimple Roy

• Chapter 9. Formal Policy Review and Continuous Learning Sanjay Tomar and Darren Swanson

• Chapter 10. Insights into Implementing Adaptive Policies Stephan Barg and Stephen Tyler

• Appendix: Policy Case Study Overviews Bibliography About the Editors and Contributors Index

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