The concept paper should respond to a defined need and purpose. A steering and a management committee are then established, with representatives from all concerned parties, to guide and coordinate the process. The need for an ICAM strategy, as the best response to well-identified problems, must be evident. Monitoring, at the early stage of articulation and implementation, is the most important management tool, satisfying the iterative nature of the process. Periodic evaluation focuses on the effectiveness in the operating mode, with particular attention to the proper evaluation of environmental externalities.
Performance indicators ought to be identified early in the process.
Data collection and research. Each subsector represented in the committees prepares baseline information on the resources, the environmental impacts and the institutional structures proper to coastal resource management which would then be used to form a coastal profile. The biophysical and socio-economic environments, interactions within the coastal ecosystem and various economic sectors, and constraints, opportunities and possible alternatives for sustainable development are identified and attempts made to analyse and understand them. The ICAM strategy to be adopted is developed by the steering and management committees on the basis of the broad goals identified in the inception paper and on information collected. The strategy defines long-term objectives and identifies policy instruments to reach the agreed objectives.