The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness calls upon donor and partner countries to enhance the
effectiveness and efficiency of country systems in a way that guarantees ownership and sustainable
results. Within this context, the current paper provides a synthesis of major elements and approaches
of institutional assessment that may be applied to environmental management. It suggests that while a
large number of diagnostic tools are in use, their level of elaboration is not sufficient for systemic
sector-specific capacity assessments that would match partners’ and donors’ needs. In order to
facilitate the improvement of these tools, the paper provides an inventory of core functions for
environmental management. This inventory may be used by those involved in capacity assessments to
consider more amply specifics of the environmental sector. Each function will need to be associated
with benchmarks reflecting the multifaceted nature of institutional capacity. The evolving approaches
to environmental management, as well as changes in the international and country context, impose the
need to regularly update both the list of functions and complementary benchmarks.
