Significant resources are invested into developing policy and planning documents so it is important to have a means of checking that this investment has been worthwhile. Policy and plan monitoring is more than a statutory requirement. It is a useful management tool to evaluate and review the effectiveness of policy provisions and plans.
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Have a clear purpose for policy and plan monitoring. Is it for:
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accountability to the community (to show you have provided a means of managing what you said you would manage and achieved the plan 's environmental, economic, social and cultural goals - such as required by section 32 of the RMA)? OR
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continuous improvement of your organisation? OR
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both? (which is likely to be the most useful approach).
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Consider summarising the approach in a monitoring strategy.
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Policy and plan effectiveness monitoring is systematic and involves tracking and evaluating whether and how well policy or plan implementation is resolving the issues raised in plans.
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Is the policy or plan achieving its objectives? How do you know?
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Are the implementing agencies delivering on anticipated outcomes?
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Have the environmental outcomes have been achieved? This has strong links to state of the environment monitoring and reporting.
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How effective have policy or plan preparation and implementation processes been?
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Does the policy or plan cover the most important things? Are there emerging issues that are not being addressed? (This is an extension of the section 32 process – see s.32(2)(c)) This also links closely to state of the environment monitoring.
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