MILITARY PHARMACY AND MEDICINE

© Military Pharmacy and Medicine • 2012 • 4 • 98 – 104programs with environmental politics and strategieson a national level.Special value of such evaluation is increasinglymore often recognized among European countries.As an example, the goal of European Uniondirective on strategic environmental evaluationwas to ensure proper level of assessment at astage of strategic decisions in all member countries.This project is considered a step towardensuring balanced development and therefore,means of achieving goals of the EuropeanUnion Fifth Environmental Action Program:“Towards Sustainability.”It is an effect of the accepted Rio Declarationon “Environment and Development” and,above all, Agenda 21 on actions undertaken atthe turn of the 20 th and 21 st century in order toensure sustainable development. It is supposedto optimally balance the current status with theassumed, undertaken for the future. Therefore,strategic evaluation is considered an instrumentallowing for inclusion of environmentalaspects and sustainable development intothe mainstream decision-making processesregarding development. As opposed to individualprojects, strategic evaluation methodis directed toward programs at early stages ofplanning. Such approach provides substantialbenefits in terms of strategic evaluation of theprogram at an early stage of its development.Conditions necessary for balancing the developmentgoals (particularly regarding the environment)are analyzed as an element of strategicevaluation.Many developed countries, as well as those enteringthis path, have strategies of sustainable developmentalready behind them in terms of theirplanning as well as describing specific dimensionsof their environmental policies.At a political level, goal descriptions are leastdetailed. Therefore, strategic evaluations areperformed at the same level. They concentratemainly around the analysis of political goals, andtheir environmental cohesion. In the sustainabledevelopment document, it signifies ensuringconsistency with the goals of international andglobal policies expressed through agreements,conventions and other documents.Radosław Ziemba: Sustainable development in light of international cooperationWhy then, are strategic evaluations so important?They include aspects of sustainable growthinto internal decision-making processes. Sustainablegrowth is directed at fulfilling the needs of acontemporary man in such manner that wouldnot prevent the future generations from utilizingenvironmental resources. This requirementresults in the necessity of maintaining balancebetween goals and environmental, economicaland social criteria.Effects analyzed as a part of strategic evaluationmay be divided into four groups:••traditional environmental factors, such asecological effects, quality of water and soil,quality of the air, noise levels, landscape, consequencesfor the population – analyzed withregard to their international, domestic andregional significance;••outcomes associated with imposing balance,which encompass the threat o irreversible,cumulative or secondary effects such as:exploitation of non-renewable resources, lossof biodiversity, valuable natural ecosystems,as well as long-term productivity of forests orrural areas;••induced changes in use of the land, particularlyin relation to urbanization and expansionof municipal peripheries;••political effects of breaching internationalagreements and other domestic policies.Assessment of significance (or importance) ofpredicted effects is a key element of strategicenvironmental assessment process. However, upto date, no index was agreed upon, which wouldmeasure the degree of attained sustainable progress,encompassing various indexes and determininghow a given factor should be weightedagainst other ones. Sustainable balance does notonly determine beneficial effects. They may beunfavorable or, at the least, of little benefit. Allof those effects should be considered through anadvanced grading system, even more so whenvarious factors undergo evaluation. Evaluationcriteria must be established for selected problemsin order to determine the significance of predictedoutcomes.At a strategic level, it is indicated to assess therisk of occurrence of significant outcomes (benefits,losses, conflicts) instead of making prognoses,which in turn should be performed at a98 http://military.isl-journals.com