A number of countries have established or required existing institutions to create national sustainable development strategies. Building on the insights of Report 1, it explores existing frameworks and takes an in-depth look at eight institutional options available to New Zealand.

The paper reviews eight previously identified institutional options in the light of international experience, and proposes a new institutional framework that is capable of progressing sustainable development and delivering New Zealand an overarching strategy document, called a National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS). As with other Project 2058 reports, both this and the accompanying background papers build on earlier reports, therefore where possible we have avoided repetition.

Our first report, A National Sustainable Development Strategy: How New Zealand measures up against international commitments (Sustainable Future, 2007a), identified eight institutional options that were capable of delivering on the above. This paper investigates each of the eight options in light of international experience and New Zealand’s unique characteristics and resources.