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2-3 November 2009 - Paris, France
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Background
In many instances governments already know much about how to respond to specific societal concerns in ways that satisfy the demands of their citizens while avoiding over-costly or overly trade-restricting policy instruments. For example, much is known about the design of measures to deal with local or specific environmental problems related to farming both in terms of effective and efficient measures and how to avoid unnecessarily trade-restricting measures.
There is a sense in which every government policy initiative is a response to a societal concern, but this is not a useful basis on which to delimit the scope of the Workshop. Societal concern is a term that is much used but not often precisely defined. It is often used interchangeably with consumer and citizen concerns. It is therefore proposed to delineate the scope of the Workshop by reference to a specific set of characteristics of the policy problem.
A main characteristic is that the pressure for a policy response is a bottom-up movement characterized by the presence of advocacy or lobbying groups, multiple stakeholders, often different views about desirable outcomes and active involvement of the media. Other characteristics of interest are the presence of an ethical or values dimension which may differ within and between countries; uncertainty about processes or impacts or other forms of unknown or inaccessible knowledge such as uncertainties about scientific evidence; information asymmetries; different perceptions of or aversion to risk and possible irreversibilities.
The Workshop
The purpose of this Workshop is to explore the characteristics of societal concerns that are relevant for designing policy responses to them, both in a purely domestic context and in the more complex setting of international trade and international obligations.
The Workshop will be held over two days. It is proposed that the first day be devoted to exploring the characteristics of societal concerns that (1) make them different from any other policy problem and (2) make the task of the policy-maker, including the trade policy maker, particularly difficult. The first day would also cover some dimensions of related policy issues.
The second day would be devoted to a series of case studies in which specific societal concerns would be presented. The main elements would be to describe how the societal concerns came to the fore, how it was decided that a policy intervention should be made, what considerations were taken into account in the design of the measure, what monitoring and evaluation is undertaken to ensure effectiveness and efficiency and how the international dimensions (trade or international obligations) have been/ need to be taken into account?
Ideally, more than one actual policy response would be presented for each topic. Possible topics include animal welfare, protection of biodiversity, GMO’s, and Fair Trade labelling and marketing.
It is proposed that for each topic one or two main presenters would be identified, plus a small number of panellists who would lead the discussion. Speakers and participants would be drawn from many disciplines – ethicists, scientists, lawyers, sociologists, political scientists, public policy experts as well as economists. The assistance of delegations would be sought to identify experts whose research interests have brought them to a reflection on those societal concerns that arise particularly with respect to food and agriculture.
Objectives and Outcomes
Societal concerns with some or all of the characteristics mentioned in the previous paragraphs present some of the most difficult policy problems that governments have to face. This Workshop will provide an opportunity for an open discussion of these issues with a view to improving mutual understanding both about the origins of the different problem and about solutions, particularly solutions that avoid unnecessary disruption to trade.
A special effort will be made to ensure a multi-disciplinary gathering of speakers and other participants who will assist in understanding the many dimensions of the problem definition and how the policy-maker can take them into account, while continuing to strive for efficient and least trade distorting solutions.
It is proposed to prepare proceedings of the Workshop. Main speakers would be asked to provide papers for inclusion in the proceedings volume. A rapporteur will be asked to write an overview of the workshop which would reflect the contributions of the panelists and the nature of the debate from the floor and which would also be included in the publication. All papers would remain under the responsibility of their authors and be clearly defined as such and there would be no attempt to seek agreement on any text.
(PDF version also available)
Website topics:
Agriculture and Fisheries: www.oecd.org/agriculture
Trade: www.oecd.org/trade
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