par Bauler, Thomas
Référence ECPR Joint Sessions (2009: Lisbon)
Publication Non publié, 2009
Communication à un colloque
Résumé : Federal Belgium administration is currently starting to experiment with the implementation of a Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) scheme in order to assess its policy proposals in an integrated manner against a series of sustainable development criteria. With the present paper we discuss the Belgian SIA-scheme, including some first evidence of first practice of SIA. With the present paper we discuss the Belgian SIA‐scheme, including some first evidence of first practice of SIA. The analysis will be conducted at two distinct levels. First, we will discuss the current SIA‐process (as it has been configured by the federal policy maker in early 2008) against the preceding theoretically defined ‘implementation scenarios’. Doing so we will explore what interpretation of SIA prevails within the federal policy actors’ SDarena. Second, we will report on the recent and emerging practice of SIA as it is currently (since mid‐2008) conducted at the level of the implementation actors, i.e. the Sustainable Development Cells. In effect, the SIA assessments are partly laid in the hands of SD‐cells, i.e. ‘virtual’ and horizontal task forces organized within each federal administration or ministry. The paper will report on first results of an ongoing empirical exercise we are conducting which tries to draw a picture of the expectations the civil servants within these SD‐cells are having with regard to organizational learning (among others with regard to SIA). The aim of the paper is to continue to draw a ‘real‐time’ analytical picture of how Belgian federal administration receives, incorporates and operates this SIA‐scheme, whose basic conceptual features (i.e. be participatory, open, transparent, integrated, systematic and systemic…) are to some extent counter‐intuitive to the federal (traditional) policy‐making culture and practice.