A learning-based approach to coastal management

A number of international donors, including Sida, are promoting an approach to coastal management that is based on learning. The assumption is that co astal management initiatives are public policy experiments and should be fr amed and evaluated as such. This paper explores this approach by reconstruc ting as hypotheses the fundamental ideas that shaped coastal management in the United States in the 1970s and early 1980s, These hypotheses were appli ed to three pilot projects sponsored by the United States Agency for Intern ational Development (USAID) that were initiated in 1985, This led to nation al initiatives that featured a participatory, issue-driven approach to coas tal management and a commitment to institution building at both the nationa l and local levels. All three pilots succeeded in making the transition fro m activities devoted to training and planning to programs that are today a formal element of the national governance structure and are adequately fund ed for an ongoing period of implementation. Lessons learned on implementing a teaming-based approach to coastal management are offered.