1. Evaluation Criteria

Question 1

Name 4 out of the 8+1 evaluation criteria.

Answer 1

1. Legitimacy
2. Transparency
3. Accountability
4. Inclusiveness
5. Fairness
6. Integration
7. Capability
8. Adaptability
9. Effectiveness (& efficiency)

Question 2

Why can we not stick to the traditional structure of international - national - local governance?

Name 2 reasons.

Answer 2

1. Governance is increasingly becoming polycentric
2. Ecosystems are transboundary

Question 3

Which three trends do Nunan’s evaluation criteria respond to?

Answer 3

1. Decentralisation and multi-actor participation
2. Challenges of horizontal and vertical interactions
3. Need for assessment of governance performance through principles

Question 4

Why does the course add the extra criterium Effectiveness to the list of 8 principles?

Answer 4

Because even if processes are designed well, there may still be adverse outcomes.

Question 5

What is meant with the criterium Legitimacy?

Answer 5

The support, acceptance and justification of a rule, institution or order by a community.

Question 6

Provide a question which can be asked to evaluate the Legitimacy criterium.

Answer 6

1. What (legal) mandate does each actor have?
2. How committed are actors and how is this demonstraded?
3. Do actors have a collective vision?
4. What are the perceptions of legitimacy by actors?

Question 7

Provide a question which can be asked to evaluate the Transparency criterium.

Answer 7

1. How visible are decision-making processes?
2. Do all stakeholders know when and where extraction rules are formed?
3. Is information available to stakeholders?
4. Are reasons for decisions communicated to stakeholders?

Question 8

What does the Accountability criterium mean?

Answer 8

Accountability refers to the relationships between actors where actions are explained and justified.

Question 9

Provide a question which can be asked to evaluate the Accountability criterium.

Answer 9

1. How (often) are actors and structures held to account?
2. What evidence is there of downward and upward accountability?

Question 10

Provide a question which can be asked to evaluate the Inclusiveness criterium.

Answer 10

1. Are mechanisms available to enable all groups of stakeholders to participate in and influence decision-making processes and outcomes?
2. What is the basis of representation?
3. How and why does representation change between levels, and with what implications?
4. Are marginalised groups represented at higher levels of governance?

Question 11

Why is it important that plural values are recognised? Name 2 reasons.

Answer 11

1. Invites moral, ethical and cultural arguments for conservation
2. Adds sense of place, identity, sacred values
3. Increases legitimacy and acceptance
4. Increases effectiveness

Question 12

Provide a question which can be asked to evaluate the Fairness criterium.

Answer 12

1. Have the interests of all stakeholders been sought and considered?
2. Is there any bias towards a particular group/interest in decision-making?
3. Are rights and responsibilities shared and assigned fairly?
4. How is the ‘ecosystem services outcome’ distributed?
5. Are the socio-economic costs and benefits distributed fairly?
6. Are unequal backgrounds considered?

Question 13

Provide a question which can be asked to evaluate the Integration criterium.

Answer 13

1. Is there coordination between and within levels of governance?
2. How do information and resources flow?
3. What type of knowledge is recognised and used?
4. Do priorities, pland and activities within and across levels of governance fit together?
5. Is there a common, shared direction?

Question 14

Provide a question which can be asked to evaluate the Capability criterium.

Answer 14

1. Do those involved in governance have the skills, resources, experience and knowledge needed?
2. Are there systems in place that enable effective governance?

Question 15

Name 2 Capability enhancing measures that may make a governance system more effective.

Answer 15

1. Conflict resolution mechanisms
2. Bridging organizations (horizontal and vertical links)
3. Support for building institutions, networks, trust
4. Support for lower level actors from state/outside entity

Question 16

False or true: the added criterium Effectiveness concerns the “environmental outcome”.

Answer 16

True.

Question 17

Why may it be difficult to assess Effectiveness? Name 2 reasons.

Answer 17

1. Requires regular monitoring and evaluation
2. Implementation is a long-term process
3. Often, goals are not formulated as measurable targets and timelines
4. Goals need to reconcile diverse values and standards

Question 18

What is multi-level governance?

Answer 18

The existence of multiple actors interacting at multiple administrative levels and multiple scales.

Nunan (2018)

Question 19

What is polycentricity?

Answer 19

Systems with many centres of decision making.

Question 20

What are the three trends of renewable natural resource governance discernible since the 1980s?

Answer 20

1. Increase in decentralization of management functions from central government to lower level authorities
2. New public management policies in the 1980s created specialised government structures, requiring new mechanisms to encourage coordination
3. Increase of private sector, civil society and market-type instruments in governance arrangements

Question 21

What do horizontal interactions do?

Answer 21

Horizontal interactions facilitate cooperation and coordination between actors at any only level.

Question 22

What are vertical interactions?

Answer 22

Vertical interactions facilitate the flow of resources, information and decision up and down the system.

Question 23

Why may vertical and horizontal interactions not lead to desired outcomes per se?

Answer 23

The coordination dilemma. The interactions may be infrequent, with limited coordination and cooperation between actors, and with high transaction costs.

Question 24

What is the “problem of fit”?

Answer 24

The “problem of fit” suggests that very often governance systems do not match the biophysical system, leading to challenges in effectiveness and the need for bridging or the formation of collaborative structures.

Question 25

What is policy coordination?

Answer 25

A policy is coordinated if adjustments have been made such that the adverse consequences of a decision are to some degreed avoided, reduced, counterbalanced or outweighed.

Question 26

Provide a question which can be asked to evaluate the Adaptability criterium.

Answer 26

1. How do the governance structures seek and respond to new knowledge?
2. How is uncertainty coped with?
3. How are problems and issues anticipated and
   managed?
4. Do individuals and structures reflect on and learn from performance?

Question 27

Name 3 non-electoral mechanisms for increasing downward accountability of decentralized authorities.

Answer 27

1. Third-party monitoring by media, NGOso or independently elected controllers
2. Auditing and evaluation
3. Political pressures and lobbying
4. Media/NGO provision of information on roles and obligations of government
5. Taxation
6. Embeddedness of leaders in their community
7. Belief systems of leaders and their communities

Question 28

True or false: legality as a source of legitimacy is insufficient on its own.

Answer 28

True. Legitimacy has also been seen as “socially constructed”.

Question 29

Why do mangrove forest present a challenge for governance?

Answer 29

They are located both in the sea and on land, affecting many different actors and stakeholders.

Question 30

What is a key concern in multi-level governance?

Answer 30

A lack of accounability, particularly horizontally to actors at the same level and downward to lower levels.