DOI: 10.5285/e2f248d5-79a1-4af9-bdd4-f739fb12ce9a
title: Nitrogen-relevant policies from South Asia collected by the South Asian Nitrogen Hub (SANH) 2020-2021 

description: The database includes the classification of 966 active nitrogen-relevant policies from South Asia (including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Sri Lanka). The collection during 2020 and 2021 focuses on national level policies; some subnational policies were also collected. 

Data collection involved building on an existing open access global database developed by Kanter et al., 2020 that contained 51 policies for South Asia established to 2017 sourced by the environmental law ECOLEX database. Further policies were collected mostly from online sources: such as international policy databases: FAOLEX and national government and ministry websites. A protocol for policy collection and classification was established and followed to ensure consistent and thorough collections across the eight countries. Policies were classified according to a variety of parameters including the sink (air, water etc.) and sector (agriculture, industry etc.) they address and by type of policy. Policies were clustered if they had a central node policy in place and if a ‘subordinate policy’ (including amendments) did not offer anything new in terms of content related to Nitrogen management.

This data was collected as part of a collective partnership that brings together leading organisations from across South Asia and the UK to reduce the adverse global impacts of nitrogen pollution on the environment, health, and wellbeing. More specifically providing a resource for both SANH partners and the wider scientific and policy community to understand the nitrogen policy landscape in the south Asian region. Furthermore, this research contributes to efforts in building a nitrogen policy arena promoting sustainable management of nitrogen, mitigating adverse effects.

The dataset provides a thorough overview of available nitrogen related policies in South Asia but does not provide a complete set of all the nitrogen relevant policies available in each country. In some cases, this was due to our dependency on policy availability online, and some websites were not maintained. In addition, we excluded policies established post 2020 to avoid policy responses to COVID19 and to align more closely with the original global study. Repealed policies were omitted from the database.
description: The data generated built on an existing open access global nitrogen policy database developed by Kanter et al. (2020) that contains 51 policies for South Asia established up until 2017 sourced by the environmental law ECOLEX database.

The next step for data collection included the establishment of an adjusted policy collection protocol providing guidance on nitrogen relevant policies established up until December 2019, identifying potential policy sources. A further 915 policies were collected from mostly online sources: such as the international policy database FAOLEX, national government and ministry websites, and the ECOLEX database. The descriptive policy information compiled into the database included: policy title, related URL, data of establishment, policy end date (if applicable), country name, policy coverage (national or sub-national), language and ministry responsible. The identification of policy text type (i.e. legislation, policy, regulation miscellaneous) and source type (1 = ECOLEX/FAOLEX, 2 = other) involved a context-based classification. Please note all policies from ECOLEX were originally sourced by FAOLEX.

According to the protocols specified criteria policies were checked and filtered. A coordinator conducted further internal checks to ensure consistency and identify any search gaps (e.g. missing sectors) before moving onto the next steps.

The next step was to conduct a content-based classification of the policies according to the policies objectives and proposals. Following a similar approach designed by Kanter et al. (2020) policies are classified according to policy type, sector focus, and environmental objectives. Additional classifications are applied, including: impact direction, pollution target source, relevance and impact scope. Internal and external checks were provided to ensure that policies were classified consistently.

Data limitations are acknowledged for both the collection and classification processes. The collection of nitrogen relevant policies are recognised to not be 100% complete due to the dependency on online availability of policy texts and gaps in existing databases. The classifications could also be subjective. Random internal and external checks, along the different data processing steps, aimed to mitigate this risk. The relevance and impact of certain policies could vary according to country context therefore there was inevitability some variability in analysts judgements between countries.