Dec 03, 2020
Engaging with civil society and private sector stakeholders is essential for effective climate action. Involving stakeholders in projects at the country level to tackle climate change promotes greater transparency and accountability. Moreover, stakeholders bring comparative advantages such as local knowledge and technical expertise which can make policies and projects more effective.
So it should be no surprise that stakeholder engagement is - and always has been - at the core of the work of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF). Since 2008, the CIF has engaged countless civil society and private sector stakeholders at the global, country, and local level. What lessons have we learned in that time? That is the question we sought to answer in our new study.
Lessons Learned from a Decade of Stakeholder Engagement at the Country Level
The “Enhancing Climate Action through Stakeholder Engagement at the Country Level” study reviewed CIF’s stakeholder engagement process undertaken in nine countries over the last decade: Kenya, Philippines, Cambodia, Tajikistan, Zambia, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico and Peru. It illustrated the challenges and rewards of stakeholder engagement and the important role stakeholders play in shaping climate-related activities.
The countries highlighted in the study were selected on the basis of their varied stakeholder engagement experience and grouped around three CIF financing areas: renewable energy and clean technology; climate resilience; and sustainable forestry. Each case study was organized around key stakeholder engagement activities carried out at the country level such as: stakeholder mapping; establishing country-led coordination; information-sharing; designing national climate investment plans; conducting consultations; and building stakeholder capacity; and local climate partnerships.
Each of the nine country case studies analyzed the impact our engagement strategies had on climate action, and identified lessons learned. It found the following engagement strategies to be the most effective in the countries studied:
- In Kenya, carrying out multi-stakeholder consultations with international, national and local level civil society stakeholders helped to expand investments in geothermal energy and solar water heating systems.
- In Cambodia, early preliminary consultation with civil society ensured greater ownership of an initiative to improve the climate resilience of its water management, agriculture and rural infrastructure.
- In Zambia, the use of well-functioning government coordination mechanisms for climate policies and action allowed for effective consultation with local communities and the delivery of projects that increased the country’s climate resilience capacity, including in the vulnerable Barotse and Kafue river basins.
- In Peru, supporting cooperation between civil society organizations helped to enhance the participation of indigenous peoples in designing projects to support forest-dependent communities to sustainably manage their forests. This also makes these communities’ ongoing participation in the projects more likely in the future.
“This study shows that stakeholder engagement is essential if we are to meet our international climate goals and save the planet,” said Dora Nsuwa Cudjoe, who leads the CIF’s Stakeholder Engagement Team and produced the report. She further stated that: “Stakeholder input enhances climate investment plans and helps ensure that each country’s plan is transparent, technically sound, based on national priorities, and draws on the strengths of diverse stakeholders to affect nationwide or sector-wide transformation.”
CIF’s Stakeholder Engagement Program
The CIF has actively engaged a wide range of stakeholders since its establishment in 2008, including government ministers and influential political organisations without a formal government link. It has held dozens of multi-stakeholder dialogue and consultation meetings at its headquarters in Washington as well as in numerous cities around the globe.
The cornerstone of this engagement has taken place through the Stakeholder Observer Program which has seen over 120 civil society and private sector representatives serve as observers during the past decade. The observers participate in the semi-annual meetings of CIF’s two trust fund committees and three sub-committees, proposing topics for discussion, sharing their perspectives, and suggesting testimony by technical experts. The CIF also engages with leading civil society and private sector climate networks worldwide, including the Stakeholder Advisory Network on Climate Finance (SAN).
All of this engagement effort has a major priority outcome: the development of a CIF Investment Plan, the Strategic Program for Climate Resilience for example, that is based on a country’s national priorities. An Investment Plan brings together government officials with Multilateral Development Banks, the private sector and civil society by facilitating investments that link to other actions such as policy and regulatory reform and capacity development. An Investment Plan can only be effective if it draws on the strengths of its diverse stakeholders. As our new report has shown, this all starts with effective stakeholder engagement.
You can read more about CIF’s stakeholder engagement work here.
