Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / District leaders are attempting to navigate unprecedented federal and state policy pressures to create a coherent plan for improvement with limited guidance from research. Rorrer, Skrla, and Scheurich (2008) identified establishing policy coherence as one of four essential roles in systemic reform performed by district leaders. This qualitative case study explored how leaders in one Massachusetts public school district that had demonstrated signs of improving achievement and equity attempted to establish policy coherence. Drawing primarily upon semi-structured interviews, this study found that district leaders enacted the role to varying degrees in ways that were consistent with Rorrer et al. (2008). In particular, building leaders were much less apt to respond to external policies in a proactive and deliberate manner. Furthermore, district leaders worked to mediate policies in service to local goals and needs in a variety of ways. Recommendations include how district leaders can enact the role in a more proactive and deliberate manner while setting clear goals and developing collaborative partnerships with schools, all which allow them to craft coherence more effectively. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Using Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China as a case study, the thesis addresses the interconnectedness between water and energy and investigates the regional water-energy nexus to assess the coherence of relevant policies and to explore opportunities to achieve sustainable development. Ningxia is extremely scarce in water but abundant in coal. On one hand, the government sets stringent targets to conserve water; on the other hand, the region has ambitious plans to develop the water intensive coal and relevant industries. Based on current development status and policies, the water and energy systems are modeled by WEAP and LEAP, respectively. The regional water-energy nexus is mapped to reveal the interactions between water and energy sectors. From the water policies, it is estimated that the water demand would decrease slightly in 2015; from the energy policies, the energy demand and production would increase greatly. Through the nexus approach, it is found that while energy is abundant to satisfy the increasing demand by the water sector for production and supply, water, however, cannot support the aggressive energy development. The huge water deficit indicates the potential incoherence of current policies and the unsustainable development mode. Nevertheless, there are opportunities to secure resources sustainability. This thesis highlights the viability of the water-energy nexus approach for comprehensive cross-sectorial assessment in policy making and resource management.

Policy coherence for development (PCD) has risen on the donor community’s agenda over the years as globalization makes it impossible to ignore non-aid policies’ impact on development. Although straightforward in theory, PCD has proven much more difficult to achieve in practice. Policy incoherence remains commonplace, even as the number of guidelines and best practices for avoiding it increase. This thesis used the Advocacy Coalition Framework to analyze two cases of policy change in Sweden and Germany, namely the adoption of the democracy criterion for arms exports and the coal phase-out respectively. The findings suggest that the current discourse about PCD among donors and donor institutions – that PCD can be achieved through better evidence and greater policy coordination – requires careful scrutiny. The Swedish and German case studies strongly suggest that bureaucratic mechanisms for PCD are insufficient to make the significant political trade-offs PCD typically demands. This analysis argues that achieving policy coherence, especially where there are significant conflicts between development and self-interest, requires political direction catalyzed by an external event. This event, or series of events, must be disruptive and focus significant public attention on the policy issue, to trigger a redistribution of power in the policy subsystem. A combination of other necessary and sufficient factors is also needed for successful policy change in favour of PCD. Institutional mechanisms cannot substitute for political will, and the current move towards a de-politicized treatment of PCD – as something that can be achieved through technocratic means – should be re-examined.

Within the field of development cooperation policy coherence has received increasing attention. Definitions of policy coherence are elusive; from describing consistency between intention and outcome to describing synergies between and within different policy areas. Potential incoherence has been ascribed not only to potentially incongruent goals but also different frames, discourses and underlying values. This thesis uses the concept of worldviews to understand how coherence or incoherence can be discerned between and among the United Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and Swedish development cooperation policies from Sida, Swedfund and SEK. The conclusion indicates that there is potential dialectic tension between normative worldviews of corporatism and development framing of egalitarian elements. Coherence is found in the technocentric, prevailing worldview. Results indicate that coherence and subsequent policy implementation can be affected by underlying aspects and mechanisms beyond trade-offs and goal-conflicts.

Problems of coherence and effectiveness have been repeatedly mentioned by external observers as affecting European Union (EU) external action. A theory-based explanation of this state of affairs is, however, lacking in the literature. This thesis aims to address this lacuna by focusing on a particular aspect of EU external action, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and by analysing CFSP actions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) throughout the period 1991-2006. Its primary goal is to determine which factors explain different degrees of coherence and effectiveness, and, in particular, whether or not, increasing CFSP institutionalisation has promoted coherence and effectiveness. After introducing the concepts of coherence and effectiveness, the thesis sketches the political and academic debate surrounding these concepts, and three key explanatory factors are singled out: interests, identities and institutions. The latter is taken as a starting point for analysis. Drawing on a historical institutionalist theory, it explores the CFSP institutionalisation and examines how the development of institutions, path dependency, unintended consequences , learning and socialisation have affected CFSP coherence and effectiveness over time. Furthermore, it aims to find out whether changes in institutions have facilitated convergence of Member States' interests regarding EU policy towards BiH, as well as the development of the EU's broader international role. The thesis then proceeds to investigate CFSP activities in BiH, analysing coherence and effectiveness in eight case studies. It concludes that CFSP institutionalisation has partially increased levels of effectiveness over the period 1991-2006. As for coherence, greater institutionalisation has resulted in some problems of coherence in the short term, but leaming has been a significant factor correcting these in the medium and long term. While path dependency has resulted in problems of coherence and effectiveness, socialisation processes have been important in facilitating consensus among the Member States. Finally, CFSP institutionalisation is seen as having had an impact on the EU's international role moving it from a civilian to a normative power, willing to resort to military instruments when necessary.

Climate change is a critical global problem requiring urgent action. Despite international efforts, problems remain in finding the solutions to tackle a changing climate and for countries to take climate action. Identifying (in)coherence between the domestic and foreign realms of climate policy is an important component for understanding these problems. For this purpose, this thesis investigates the similarities and disparities between domestic and foreign climate policy in Colombia between 2018 and 2022. By analyzing the framing of stakeholders and equity within the four primary climate policy documents for this time period, this investigation provides a novel perspective for understanding climate policy (in)coherence in the Colombian context. Aligning the analytical framework with the Neodesarrollismo model and the CBDR- RC principle, the analysis reveals similarities and disparities in how stakeholders are framed in domestic and foreign climate policy, but also incoherent components within the same policies. Domestic policy spotlights economic benefits and portrays extractive industries as both a challenge and an opportunity, while foreign policy urges a global shift away from these sectors. Nevertheless, the findings indicate that Colombia prioritizes economic growth over equity and stakeholder engagement, especially inclusion of societal stakeholders. The investigation reveals significant dissonance between policy narratives and action, both between and within domestic and foreign climate policy.

Denna studie undersöker förutsättningarna för implementering av EU:s nya skogsstrategi i en flernivåstyrningskontext. Policykonflikter har varit framträdande inom olika områden, inte minst inom skogspolitiken, och skogsägare har haft svårigheter att navigera bland de regleringar som finns både på nationell och EU-nivå. Därför fokuserar denna uppsats på den övergripande forskningsfrågan: Är skogspolitiken samstämmig? Genom att analysera och jämföra policykoherensen mellan EU:s skogsstrategi och två viktiga svenska policydokument – klimathandlingsplanen från 2023 och strategin för biologisk mångfald och ekosystemtjänster från 2013 – syftar studien till att belysa hur väl dessa strategier samverkar och är samstämmiga inom skogspolitiken på både EU- och nationell nivå. Studien finner överensstämmelser mellan vissa mål i EU:s skogsstrategi och de svenska dokumenten, vilket indikerar en potential för implementering. Samtidigt identifieras konflikter mellan vissa policys, särskilt vad gäller prioriteringar och tidsramar. Dessa avvikelser minskar policykoherensen och skapar hinder för en effektiv implementering av EU:s skogsstrategi i Sverige. Studien bidrar därmed till en ökad förståelse av skogspolitikens samstämmighet och belyser utmaningar för implementeringen av mål på olika nivåer inom den svenska skogspolitiken.

Migration and development are a globally recurring topic within media and political discourse. In Europe, the topic gained attention following the so called "refugee crisis", accompanied by rhetoric of solving the root causes of migration and increasing coherence of migration and development policy. Even though the refugee flows mainly avoided Czechia, the crisis had an impact on public and political discourse, including links to migration, development and the need for coherence in policy strategic documents. The diploma thesis analyses trends in Czech migration and development policy and their coherence in the aftermath of global financial and refugee crisis. This thesis aims to assess the progress toward coherence and identify the key areas and causes of incoherence. The concept of policy coherence for migration and development, and a model of policy coherence cycle are used as the main theoretical frameworks. To gain an insight into the process of policy formation, a distinction is made between political commitments and policies on paper, policy coordination and implementation in practice, and the potential impact of the political discourse on this process. This thesis presents attitudes and perceptions of key stakeholders in Czech migration and development policy, based on a series of 20...

Policy coherence is receiving increasing attention due to the interconnectedness, urgency and global character of the challenges that humanity faces today. Policy coherence provides an effective approach to tackle the complex macrochallenges of today since it entails achieving policies from different levels and sectors striving towards the same objectives in a supportive and reinforcing manner, producing an effective and long-lasting response to the challenges. Considering the broad, ambitious and universal Agenda 2030, policy coherence is of greater importance than ever before. This study investigates the policy coherence between Agenda 2030 and the national level looking into the case of Sweden with focus on the environmental dimension of sustainable development by evaluating the coherence between the environmental SDGs and Sweden’s national environmental quality objectives. Coherence between the two policy levels is evaluated using a qualitative data analysis by comparing official policy documents from respective policy agenda and applying the OECD’s (2016) Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development framework to Sweden. The conclusion indicates that the policy agendas fit together in a reasonable way but has the potential to be more coherent. Urgency is seldom addressed, but rather challenges are pointed out as critical and taking action is noted as significant. Both of the policy agendas address the interconnectedness of the challenges, the SDGs in a vague manner pointing out ‘links’ and the national environmental quality objectives in a more detailed manner pointing out more specific examples. The global character of the challenges is addressed in both of the policy agendas, more so in the SDGs than the national environmental quality targets. Incoherence is at times difficult to point out due to the vague terms used in Agenda 2030 compared to Sweden’s national policy. However, the vagueness of Agenda 2030 seems to serve a function whereas the country specific goals go into further detail according to the context. Despite the difficulty, results show that a broader perspective would benefit both policy agendas in addressing the global challenges coherently, since it consequently implies that the concept of policy coherence is applied at a larger scale.

Sustainability has consolidated as a global paradigm. Consequently, different sectors have adopted its principles to develop better practices for the environment and society. Within the transportation field, carsharing has emerged as a potential solution to reduce congestion and carbon emissions.  In Stockholm, one of the world’s leading cities on the sustainability agenda, carsharing has been growing steadily, with more companies participating in the market and more users adopting it. Likewise, the local administration conceives it as a tool that could contribute to sustainability. However, the private and the public sector assert that carsharing is far from its potential. The conditions established by the local government could be a factor that explains this situation.  Accordingly, this thesis aims to analyze Stockholm’s policy and administrative framework for carsharing, with a focus on its coordination and implementation. This was made by conducting interviews with public officers and carsharing companies and by analyzing Stockholm’s policy and administrative documents related to carsharing through the lens of policy integration and coordination. The illustrative example of charging stations and its implications for carsharing is used to analyze policy coherence, and to reveal the implementation divergences between the private carsharing sector and local public authorities.