RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND PROJECTS
Policy coherence
One of the cross-cutting themes of my work, or perhaps a real obsession, has been policy coherence. In my first job as a project assistant in a Local Agenda 21 project, I remember noticing the strong silos. A particularly wintery example comes to mind, where some cities faced sitations where saving on the winter maintenance of pavements led to increased ER costs due to people slipping and breaking their bones.
We have worked recently with policy coherence also in the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing. In 2022, we published a report on the topic, prepated together with SAI Canada: Auditing Sustainable Development Goals: Key Principles and Tools on Policy Coherence and Multi-stakeholder Engagement for Supreme Audit Institutions (wgea.org)
Currently we are working on an exciting project at the nexus between climate and biodiversity.
The concept of sustainable development is particularly helpful here, as it combines environment, social and economic considerations, requiring attention to policy coherence. Regarding the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it’s important to consider not only individual SDGs but also the interactions and dynamics between them.
In the following article, we present a visualization on various elements of policy coherence in the context of sustainable development:
Niemenmaa, Vivi & Paula Kivimaa (2021). Policy coherence is the foundation of sustainable development and sound financial management. NAOF articles on Good Governance 2021.
For other reading on the topic:
Tools for analyzing policy coherence – National Audit Office of Finland (vtv.fi)
Policy coherence and sustainability transition – inspiration for auditors and evaluators (wgea.org)
The sustainable development goals are becoming an integral part of the audit work. NAOF blog 24.9.2020.
Global spillovers
We have collaborated for several years with Professor Pia Bäcklund from the Department of Geosciences and Geography at the University of Helsinki on global spillovers and overall geographies of inequalities.
Since 2020, students have completed fantastic group assignments on various intriguing topics, including the impact of EU agricultural policy in Africa, global plastic waste flows, the dirty side of mining as well as indigenous knowledge.
Below is a map created by Dovydaitis, Holkkola, Johanson, Saksa and Virolainen in 2020, illustrating the dynamics of plastic waste import in Asia, after China banned the import of single-use plastic waste. Spillover effects of sustainable development goals – five case studies.
You can find some of the other course reports here:
wgea.org/media/vslah5fb/wgea-and-university-collaborative-course-2024_indigenous-knowledge.pdf