Systematic review of how Environmental Management policies are incorporated into National Development Plans in order to achieve Sustainable Development

Current global pressures on natural resources requires incorporating the environment into national planning and budgeting processes if sustainable development is to be realized. Thus, the role of National development planning in setting up objectives for all levels of government, directing national budgetary processes and managing support from external sources makes it an important driver in any country's environmental management system. Agenda 23 of the United Nations general assembly tasked each country with developing responses that would meet the overall implementation of the agenda, by building on existing appropriate planning instruments with the aim of supporting a transition to the Sustainable Development Goals. Zambia's current Seventh National Development Plan makes mention of the country's potential to productively harness its renewable and natural resources, and lists examples of what can be done. However, it does not explain how this will be done and what measures will be taken to achieve these sustainable goals. The aim of this paper was to review and evaluate gaps in how environmental management policies are incorporated into national development plans and, based on the findings, revise national policies in the goal of achieving sustainable development. A systematic quantitative literature review was carried out, and 19 pieces of literature met the criteria for evaluation. The findings revealed that incorporating environmental management policies into national development planning processes is multi-faceted and should be treated as long term programme. It also showed that keeping the focus on specific issues, places and people makes a stronger case for mainstreaming. They also showed that concentrating on key mainstream institutions and processes is more productive when considering policy processes. The findings though did not indicate whether facilitating projects at local government levels makes mainstreaming programmes more successful. It also did not indicate whether data acquired through monitoring can help determine if a national plan is more effective than a local level or micro-project plan when carrying out environmental mainstreaming. These are options for further research