The brief describes the NDC Partnership’s role in bringing together national stakeholders and international institutions around NDC planning, financing and implementation.
Some of the lessons learned relate to coordinating within national governments at the local or international levels, and focus on the need for: inclusion of all stakeholders; strong leadership; and building off existing processes and coordination groups rather than creating new ones.
Embedding climate action into medium- and long-term national and sectoral plans can help stave off disruptions from changing government administrations.
28 August 2019: The NDC Partnership has published a brief detailing its experience with and benefits of multi-stakeholder engagement in climate action and lessons learned. It explains that such engagement ensures that a range of stakeholder priorities are reflected in Partnership Plans, so that all stakeholders benefit from climate action and feel ownership and responsibility to implement mitigation and adaptation measures.
The brief titled, ‘NDC Partnership Experience with Multi-Stakeholder Engagement: Key Lessons Learned,’ highlights lessons from the NDC Partnership’s country work, challenges to multi-stakeholder engagement and suggested solutions, and is intended as a tool for a range of stakeholders working on climate action. Highlighting difficulties related to communication and coordination among national and international stakeholders, the brief describes the NDC Partnership’s role in bringing together national stakeholders and international institutions around planning, financing and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
More specifically, the brief summarizes key takeaways from the Partnership’s multi-stakeholder consultation process, and focuses on engagement with representatives across government and society, ministries of finance and planning, and international institutions that provide financial and technical assistance.
Some of the lessons learned relate to coordinating within national governments at the local or international levels, and focus on the need for: inclusion of all stakeholders; strong leadership; and building off existing processes and coordination groups rather than creating new ones.
Stakeholder engagement increases alignment between the climate agenda, national development agendas, and the SDGs.
The publication describes multiple benefits of stakeholder engagement. Multi-stakeholder engagement, the brief points out, helps consolidate available finance by embedding climate action in domestic budgets, as well as increasing access to domestic, international and private finance. It also increases alignment between the climate agenda, national development agendas, and the SDGs.
The publication also discusses the need for different actors to take ownership of various aspects of climate policy such as for municipal authorities to prioritize infrastructure projects, for finance ministries to allocate funding towards climate-smart projects, for international donors to provide technical and financial support, and for civil society to support political efforts.
The brief draws from experiences in more than 40 countries, and various consultations, which aimed to: increase engagement across ministries, sectors and civil society; strengthen participation of ministries of finance and planning; and involve implementing and development partners throughout the process.
The brief warns that challenges to sustaining stakeholder engagement and buy-in remain. For example, government and personnel changes can delay NDC Partnership planning activities. In this instance, embedding climate action into medium- and long-term national and sectoral plans can help stave off disruptions from changing government administrations.
Additional challenges include: conflicting planning/budgeting cycles and NDC processes can lead to missed opportunities; lack of sectoral engagement or inter-sectoral coordination can hinder effective planning and implementation; engaging the private sector requires clear investment returns or policy signals; securing participation from ministers and Heads of State requires additional effort; and multi-stakeholder consultations require personnel and funding to organize, which many countries lack.
The NDC Partnership is a coalition of more than 140 countries, institutions, and non-state actors, and supports governments’ NDC implementation. [Publication: NDC Partnership Insight Brief on Experience with Multi-stakeholder Engagement: Key Lessons Learned] [NDC Partnership News Story]