Impact assessment


Policy Impact Assessments are formal, evidence-based procedures that assess the economic, social, and environmental effects of public policy. They have been incorporated into policy making in the OECD countries and the European Commission.
Key types of impact assessments include global assessments, policy impact assessment, strategic environmental assessment, and environmental impact assessment. Impact assessments can focus on specific themes, such as social impact assessments and gender impact assessments.
IAs can improve legislation by:
The department which is responsible for the policy proposal usually has to carry out the IA. Although the purpose and orientation of IA procedures differ, IA guidelines in the various jurisdictions all follow a similar set of steps to be followed by desk officers:
  1. Planning of the IA
  2. Carrying out the impact analysis
  3. Consultation of affected stakeholders and the general public
  4. Coordination with affected departments
  5. Summary and presentation of findings in a report
  6. Forwarding findings to decision makers
  7. Publication of the IA report
The analytical steps, which mainly relate to step 2, can be set out as
i. Problem definition
ii. Definition of policy objectives
iii. Development of policy options
iv. Analysis of impacts
v. Comparison of policy options and recommendation of one option
vi. Defining monitoring measures.

Methods

Throughout the IA process, methods can be used for support. In recent years governments have increasingly invested in developing and applying methods and tools for IA.
Depending on usage, IA methods can be classified as methods for