WOCAN was selected to be one of the few invited Civil Society Observer (CSO) for Climate Investment Fund (CIF) Partnership Forum, held in Istanbul, Turkey from Nov 4-7, 2012. One Nov 4, Nisha Onta attended the eventCivil Society Forum,organized by the CSOs. The Forum opened with the keynote speaker, Myrna Cunningham Kain from Centre for the Indigenous Peoples Autonomy (Nicaragua) addressing: what stakeholder engagement at country and local level look like? She made an impassionate speech on indigenous people’s involvement in the climate funds and called on more open spaces for cooperation beyond carbon market projects. Myrna also emphasized need for specific measures to include women in decision making and implementation process of the CIF.
Sergio Sanchez from Clean Air Institute presented the CSO CIF Survey results, focusing on stakeholder engagement in CIF project implementation. 106 CSOs responded to the online call for input, 20% respondents were current CIF observers, 17% were first round CIF observers, 35% were non-observer CSOs and the rest were bilateral agencies, private sector and indigenous peoples. The responded believed that CSOs engagement in design and implementation of CIF programs and projects need to bridge the gap between multiple stakeholders, act as a watchdog for transparency and accountability, educate local stakeholders, and facilitate capacity building activities at the community level. The survey also highlighted that the CIF should allocate additional resources to enhance CSO involvement. Please download the attached powerpoints for detail information.
There was also panel discussion on stakeholder engagement in CIF implementation and a breakout session to discuss key questions:
• What are the primary strengths of CIF stakeholder engagement at the country and local level?
• What are the greatest challenges in CIF stakeholder engagement?
• What are key recommendations for the CIF?
The proposed action from the discussions of the breakout sessions were
• Establish a structure to link observers from the global to the national level.
• Implement regional knowledge sharing platforms and multi-stakeholder dialogues.
• Develop and implement a stakeholder engagement strategy for country level.
• Enhance transparency and public access to information at a national level.
