Abstract for: National Governance

National governance refers to how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources. It also describes the process by which decisions are made and implemented or fail to be implemented. This session explores the contribution of system dynamics modeling to these issues. It reports on applications of modeling projects for national-level planning purposes supporting transformation processes towards sustainable development. The presentations in this session illustrate the importance of a proper representation of dynamic complexity, that is, of feedback loops, accumulations and nonlinearities for effective management of public resources. They illustrate how stakeholder involvement across policy sectors and institutional levels enables identifying dynamic complexity and formulating effective policies. This has im-portant consequences for the likelihood of adoption and diffusion of policies by decision makers across policy sectors and institutional levels. Finally, the presentations reflect on the importance of institutionalizing simulation models in ongoing planning processes and the challenges of doing so.