Dr. Louis Meuleman is policy and governance advisor, manager and trainer on (sustainability) governance and metagovernance, public administration reform and sustainability transitions. He is Member and currently Vice-chair of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA).
Het is member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency (on sustainability and foresight). He is visiting professor at the Public Governance Institute of the University of Leuven (Belgium), senior fellow at the Center for Governance and Sustainability of the University of Massachusetts Boston (USA) and research associate at the Public Administration & Policy Group of Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands). His experience as public manager at subnational, national and European level covers almost 40 years. In addition, he publishes on topical governance challenges and has presented or moderated at UN conferences in many countries.
As from 2021 he is Associate senior expert, Berenschot Europe BV, Utrecht, the Netherlands
He worked until recently at the European Commission, DG Environment, in Brussels, as coordinator Environmental Implementation Review and European Semester. Louis has an MsC in environmental biology and a Phd in public administration. His latest book is Metagovernance for sustainability: A framework for implementing the SDGs (Routledge, London, 2018).
As from 1st January 2021 he is not a civil servant anymore and is fully available for advisory/consultancy/training projects, and continues to participate in scholarly and other discussions on the quality of governance, sustainable development and impact assessment.
Louis’ PhD thesis (2008) focused on metagovernance: how to create and manage situationally successful combinations of hierarchical, network and market styles of governance. He concludes that it is not one style, but the optimal governance mixture that works in practice, and that what works where depends among others on national/regional/local cultures and traditions.
Relevant & recent publications include: Meuleman, L. (2018), Metagovernance for sustainability: A framework for implementing the SDGs (Routledge, London). Promoting policy and institutional coherence for the SDGs (Meuleman, L. 2018). From PPP to ABC: A new partnership approach for the SDGs (Meuleman, L., Strandenaes, J.G. and Niestroy, I. 2016); Teaching Silos to Dance: A Condition to Implement the SDGs (Niestroy, I. and Meuleman, L. 2016); Common But Differentiated Governance: A Metagovernance Approach to Make the SDGs Work (Meuleman, L.; Niestroy, I. (2015); Sustainability 2015, 7, 12295-12321); Cultural diversity and sustainability metagovernance (In: L. Meuleman (Ed.) (2012), Transgovernance: Advancing Sustainability Governance. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, pp 37-81).