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Title Policy integration by implementation: Lessons from frontline staff policy practices around small-scale gold mining in Liberia
Full text http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a23ca0d1-8ff2-4522-b378-9b6f545875f0
Date 2023
Author(s) Fallah, Rebecca K. (author); Evers, Jaap (author); Hermans, L.M. (author)
Abstract Environmental policy integration is needed to ensure environmental policy goals are being realized, given their cross-sectoral nature. Most of the published research has focused on integration and coherence of (inter)national policies, plans, and programs. The implementation practices for these policies, however, are at least as important. This paper therefore looks at policy implementation for the case of artisanal gold mining in Liberia. This is studied through a lens of frontline staff (street-level bureaucrats) who operate in networks of local government agencies, civil society organizations, and communities. Results of interviews and field observations in Grand Gedeh county show how the policy context and local realities create specific dilemmas, resulting from the combination of limited resources of local frontline staff, low-income security for local communities and traditional local practices around protected forest areas. In response local frontline bureaucrats use their discretionary power and network to mobilize support, pool resources, combine mandates, and find creative solutions to both regulate and support community residents. Although these implementation strategies are neither necessarily sufficient to realize the official policy goals, nor are guaranteed to have the desired effects, they do show how local frontline staff act as de facto policymakers. Recognizing frontline staff as environmental policy integrators therefore is a crucial element toward more successful policies for sustainable development. - Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' ' Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public. - Policy Analysis
Subject(s) artisanal mining; environmental policy integration; Liberia; policy implementation; policy networks; street-level bureaucracy
Language en
Relation http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85167352284&partnerID=8YFLogxK; Environmental Policy and Governance--1756-932X--7b45ca7f-4497-4102-afb9-fdcf2783e74b
Type of publication journal article
Rights © 2023 Rebecca K. Fallah, Jaap Evers, L.M. Hermans
Identifier doi:10.1002/eet.2071
Repository Delft - Technische Universiteit Delft
Added to C-A: 2024-02-12;08:49:53