Guidance Development Spotlight: Stakeholder Participation

This series provides a window into the development of the various components of the Initiative’s Methodological Framework.

The guidance under development by the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency bridges industry-specific reporting needs with good practices in process and implementation. The Stakeholder Participation Guidance will provide users with a suite of options and good practices for engaging stakeholders in their policies and programs, whatever the sector.

Stakeholder Participation is a core component of the guidance we are producing, because it is a vital avenue for promoting equity. Not only that, stakeholder participation can be key to the success of a given policy or program. Engaging stakeholders in design and assessment can strengthen the applicability and effectiveness of policies and actions, while building ownership and support for climate action among key groups.

However, as we all know, effective participatory process does not happen automatically. The Stakeholder Participation guidance will therefore outline and utilize key principles for stakeholder engagement, such as:

• Inclusiveness: Ensure that stakeholders have the opportunity and capacity to participate and that often overlooked groups, such as women and marginalized groups, can participate effectively.
• Transparency: Provide information that is easily accessed and understood by a general public.
• Respect for rights: Recognize and respecting the full rights of stakeholders, including customary and statutory rights.

Working under these principles and others, the Stakeholder Participation components will provide guidance on, well, how to engage stakeholders. This component will likely include good practices for identifying stakeholders and conducting consultations, metrics for making sure that stakeholder inputs are integrated into project or policy design and assessment, and guidance on involving stakeholders in implementation and monitoring.

This framework component will also offer specific paths for good practice depending on the type of participation sought, such as stakeholder participation in climate policy design versus the assessment of sustainable development impacts.

Draft guidance is currently being developed with the support of a technical working group of experts from a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and countries. The guidance will continue to evolve, but the overall goal will remain the same: to provide a means to ensure that the monitoring, reporting, and verification tools offered in other framework components can be implemented with stakeholders involved and in mind.