In autumn 2013, we contracted independent consultants Olof Drakenberg and Anders Ekbom to review the role and contribution of environmental economics and economics to IIED’s work. We would like to thank them for producing a well-researched, rigorous report with a constructive critique and helpful suggestions.
The evaluation, covering the past five years, focused on PES/REDD+ and the economics of adaptation, and was intended to make recommendations about future directions for IIED’s environmental economic work based on an analysis of emerging trends.
It concludes that IIED has been working on important sustainable development issues and has been relatively successful in researching issues related to the social impact and design of economic incentive mechanisms. However, it points to the need for a broader deployment of environmental economics to tackle issues such as the Sustainable Development Goals and green economy that are likely to be important in the sustainable development debate in the next few years.
Once the IIED strategy for environmental economics is finalised in February/March, we will respond in detail to each recommendation and explain how the evaluation has influenced the strategy.