NZAIA Conference

Wellbeing, Sustainability and Impact Assessment: towards more integrated policy-making.

Wellbeing and sustainability are important considerations for policy-making in many countries, including New Zealand. But they have become more prominent in recent years, examples being the UN’s Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the adoption of a wellbeing approach by the New Zealand Treasury.

Both concepts are complex: wellbeing captures a range of social, economic and cultural characteristics, including health, while sustainability includes all these and the state of the natural environment. Developing policies and plans to deliver improved wellbeing that is also sustainable requires integration across all these considerations, and navigating a course through potentially contradictory outcomes for different sectors, areas and communities.

Impact assessment provides a structured approach to investigations of the full implications of policies, plans or projects before decisions are made on particular courses of action. In particular, strategic assessment is used to explore the wider, unintended consequences of proposed policies and plans, and to improve their outcomes and ability to meet wellbeing and sustainability objectives.

This conference asks: to what extent do policy and plan making processes in New Zealand improve wellbeing and sustainability outcomes by identifying and responding to the potential impacts of proposed change? In what ways might different impact assessment methods help to improve policy and planning processes?

The two day conference will combine invited speakers and panels and submitted poster papers. Speakers will explore impact assessments and more integrated policy-making across key sectors, with practical examples and case studies, and suggestions for better practice. On the second afternoon, one session will feature two workshops to develop skills and advance methods in strategic assessment.

Register here