The Transfer and Adoption of an Environmental Information Disclosure Program in the Philippines

Abstract

Developing countries routinely lap up transnational ideas and set them into policy in their respective localities. The transfer and adoption of environmental ratings and disclosure policy in the Philippines show that initial successes are sometimes difficult to sustain and can lead to dysfunctional programs.  This study argues that one way of explaining the dysfunction is by tracing it to the design and adoption of the policy. In this paper, the policy transfer process is analyzed focusing on agency and motivations and how these affect the features and outcomes of the process. The study finds that the transfer process was characterized by a focus on one model, attention on the solution rather than the problem, and external agents pushing rather than internal and distributed agents pulling in which served to hinder adaptation and translation. This paper hopes to contribute to the thin literature on policy transfer in developing countries.

Keywords: policy transfer, environmental information disclosure, Philippines environmental policy