Identifying and Integrating Stakeholders

! Stakeholder Identification and Involvement: ! Promotes transparency and accountability and therefore legitimacy and credibility ! Promotes acceptance and backing for decisions reached ! Promotes “buy-in” for projects ! Creates “ownership” of the process ! Provides access to information and resources for project implementation (scientific data, funds, etc.) ! Allows the development of policies and programmes that take a life cycle approach

! Incorporating Stakeholders: ! Comprehensiveness ! Can foster community ownership and highlight issues of specific concern ! Increase in available human and material resources ! NGOs are in touch with realities on the ground and can provide information on local conditions and needs ! NGOs have the ability to access and galvanise key actors in the community ! Expertise of NGOs and academia in analysing data ! Industry, trade unions, and civil society organisations can carry out capacity-building and awareness-raising activities ! Often essential partners for the implementation of the project

! Stakeholder Involvement relies on: ! Transparency ! All stakeholders need to have the opportunity to have their views adequately heard, considered and responded to

! Clear Roles and Responsibilities ! Coordination with stakeholders should commence with the development of sound terms of reference

! Comprehensive Participation ! Involve stakeholders, where possible and appropriate, throughout the process (e.g. from decision-making and planning to implementation and review)

! Two-way communication ! In order to maximise the gains from comprehensive stakeholder participation, a communicative relationship between and among stakeholders and government must exist

! Stakeholder Involvement relies on: ! Understandable and timely information ! Clearly written documents and related materials, as well as the timely provision of information, are of crucial importance. Language barriers and a possible lack of technical expertise among stakeholders may be addressed through stakeholder education

! Stakeholder education ! E.g. stakeholder training programmes, computer-based participation, open houses, plain language, phone lines, educational publications, and videos

! Adequate funding ! Insufficient resources can significantly impact certain stakeholders’ involvement. In addition, costs such as travel can severely debilitate certain stakeholder groups

! Stakeholder Involvement relies on: ! Raising awareness about issues, projects, and activities ! Contacting individual ministries/companies/organisations that are likely to be interested in participating ! Highlighting where several national/company/organisation goals and priorities may be served by the projects or activities (e.g. international commitments, development agenda, access to cleaner technology) ! Securing adequate human and financial resources

! Means of Communication: ! Meetings, workshops, training ! Public information campaigns (advertisements, leaflets, brochures) ! Guidance documents ! Websites, online forums

! Possible Obstacles – Government: ! Competing priorities that might threaten support for projects, activities, etc. ! Lack of awareness about the topic/issue ! Contradictory or duplicative mandates (or lack of a mandate)

! Possible Obstacles – Public Sector: ! Fragmented nature of civil society groups can be an obstacle to coordination at the national level ! Limited financial and human resources ! Small national NGOs may lack the technical capacity and knowledge to participate effectively in negotiations of a scientific nature ! Some NGOs may be unaware of the opportunities that participation may provide

! Possible Obstacles – Private Sector: ! Varied nature of the sector can be an obstacle to coordination at the national level ! Extreme variation in company size, resources and capacity ! Competition and confidentiality requirements acting as obstacles to information flows ! Reluctance to invest in environmental performance due to lack of a level playing field ! Need for retooling and restructuring of the informal sector

! Addressing Obstacles: ! Identify stakeholders that have an interest in participating, and address assistance requirements ! Distribute information in an appropriate format ! Provide/obtain support for networking and communication structures to enable stakeholders to organise themselves more effectively and identify common positions ! Provide/obtain technical training (e.g. through participation in government training programmes) ! To facilitate participation in policy development, stakeholders may require training on lobbying techniques, communication, advocacy, and strategy development ! Where financial support is provided, transparency must be ensured to maintain the independence of the recipient bodies

! Key Principles: ! Stakeholder involvement should be viewed broadly and flexibly, and should involve the participation of stakeholders from government, industry, and civil society ! There should be clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and activities for all groups ! Stakeholder involvement should be based on a sound framework for achieving measurable progress ! Stakeholder involvement should build capacity among partners, in particular for civil society organisations ! Stakeholder involvement policy should be in accordance with national requirements on policy development

! Sample Table of Contents: 1.  Background information to the project 2.  Potential value added to project activities by different stakeholders (list of potential stakeholders) 3.  Principles, existing mechanisms, and current gaps for stakeholder involvement 4.  Possible measures to promote stakeholder involvement, including awareness-raising and capacity-building activities 5.  Sample terms of reference for stakeholders (roles, responsibilities, and activities) i. 

Public interest groups

ii.  Trade unions and labour associations iii.  Research centres and universities iv.  Industry v.  Others 6.  Budget

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! Sample questions to understand stakeholders: ! Main issues affecting the stakeholder ! Dependency of stakeholder on the programme/issue at hand. ! List positive impacts the stakeholder may have. ! List negative impacts the stakeholder may have. ! List positive impacts upon stakeholder of overall management of the programme/issue at hand. ! List negative impacts upon stakeholder of overall management of the programme/issue at hand.

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! Sample questions to understand stakeholders: ! Assess the willingness/capacity of stakeholders to engage with management. ! Assess the willingness/capacity of management to engage with stakeholders. ! Assess political/social influence of stakeholders. ! What is the organisation of the stakeholders? ! How and to what degree are stakeholder groups organised, relating to the efficient and effective engagement in management. ! Are there specific community institutions that facilitate engagement.

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! Sample questions to understand stakeholders: ! What opportunities do stakeholders have to contribute to management? ! Are there formal or informal agreements in place? ! Are stakeholders consulted regularly? ! In what way? ! To what extent?

! Summary ! Assess the overall adequacy of stakeholder engagement ! Compare with pervious assessments ! Identify gaps and chhallenges ! Identify opportunities ! Outline follow-up activities and actions

Identifying and Integrating Stakeholders