Making Mainstreaming Work

This guide, published by the Stockholm Environment Institute for the UNEP Global Programme of Action (GPA), provides an analytical framework, guidelines, and checklists to integrate marine and coastal resource management into national planning and budgetary processes. It emphasizes shifting the narrative from purely regulatory pollution control to demonstrating how sustainable coastal management contributes to national development goals, poverty reduction, and economic growth.

• Mainstreaming is defined as the integration of coastal and marine resource issues into national development frameworks, rather than into the policies of international development partners or the UN system.
• The document identifies two primary challenges to mainstreaming: the conflict between growth-oriented national planning and the restrictive nature of environmental safeguards, and the cross-sectoral nature of marine resource protection, which spans fishing, tourism, transport, and water management.
• Coastal and marine resource issues are frequently neglected in national poverty reduction strategies, such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), where environmental references are often weak and lack specific costs or schedules for interventions.
• The proposed mainstreaming process consists of six sequential steps: establishing an institutional mechanism (led by a Lead Agency and Inter-Agency Working Group), defining a strategic framework, identifying sectoral policy priorities, assessing negative impacts, defining potential positive contributions to national goals, and identifying policy options and action areas.
• To be effective, mainstreaming must prioritize sectors where the link between coastal resources and growth is most obvious and where they are most significant for the livelihoods of poor communities, specifically highlighting aquaculture/shrimp production, tourism, and water supply and sanitation.
• The framework advocates for a shift from a purely negative, regulatory approach to a positive one that demonstrates how sustainable resource management can generate poverty reduction and growth benefits.
• Climate change adaptation is identified as a compelling 'selling point' for national policy makers and should be integrated as a focal issue within the coastal and marine resource management strategy.
• The guide provides specific adaptations for countries that have already developed a National Programme of Action (NPA), suggesting they revisit their scoping and institutional reviews to better align with national development processes.
• The document includes a checklist for integrating coastal and marine issues into the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), ensuring coherence between the 'One UN' approach and national priorities.

APA

Soussan, J. (2007). Making Mainstreaming Work. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Water-sanitation/making_mainstreaming_work.pdf

Chicago

Soussan, John. Making Mainstreaming Work. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2007. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Water-sanitation/making_mainstreaming_work.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Soussan |first1=John |title=Making Mainstreaming Work |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2007 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Water-sanitation/making_mainstreaming_work.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{soussan2007making, author = {Soussan, John}, title = {{Making Mainstreaming Work}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2007}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Water-sanitation/making_mainstreaming_work.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }