Felix Dodds Executive Director Stakeholder Forum
Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, Senior Policy Adviser, ANPED
www.stakeholderforum.org
www.ANPED.org
Stakeholder Forum
 We are a multi-stakeholder organization committed to
enhancing democracy through stakeholder involvement.
Some of our successes have included:
 Co-founding the stakeholder body round the UN CSD
 Co-founding the stakeholder coalition for UN Habitat II
 Founding the multi-stakeholder organizing committee for the
1999 European WHO Health and Environment Conference
 Founding and facilitating stakeholder input to the Second
World Water Forum, the Bonn Water Conference, the Bonn
Energy Conference
 Most recently setting up the stakeholder coordination and
lobbying for the UNEP GPA Conference (2006)
 Race for tomorrow www.racefortomorrow.com
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ANPED, Northern Alliance for
Sustainability
 A northern based NGO network on sustainability
issues
 Founded in 1991 to be a watchdog on the outcome of
Agenda 21, has ca 135 NGO members
 Has SCP, Sustainable Consumption as the overarching
issue
 Works on a number of issues: coordinates NGO input
into international processes, on IEG, CSD, UNEP etc.
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Defining Non-Governmental
Organisations
How do you describe an NGO? One survey found 48 different
terms and acronyms. Here is a sample:
BINGOs
Big International NGOs
BONGOs
Business Organized NGOs
CBOs
Community Based Organizations
CSOs
Civil Society Organizations
ENGOs
Environmental NGOs
GONGOs Government Organized NGOs
MONGO
IPOs
Indigenous Peoples Organizations
GROs
Grassroots Organizations
GSCOs
Global Social Change
Organizations
NPOs
Nonprofit Organizations
Vos
Voluntary Organizations
NGI
In short, there is no agreed terminology for describing the NGO sector.
In some ways, it is easier to describe what NGOs are not, rather than what
they are. It is generally agreed that NGOs are not:
 part of government, or
 organized primarily for private profit.
NGOs, civil society, or major groups?
“Major Groups” is a term
that was introduced in
Agenda 21, agreed by
governments at the Rio
Earth Summit. It
describes nine sectors of
society identified as
having a significant role
in sustainable
development:
 women
 children and youth
 indigenous people
 NGOs
 Local authorities
 Workers and trade
unions
 business and industry
 the scientific and
technical community
 farmers
Attending UN meetings
 Why attend the UN meeting
 Preparing for UN meetings
 How meetings operate: meet the actors and learn the
jargon
 Successful lobbying techniques
NGOs/stakeholders in
Intergovernmental Processes
4 important functions:
 Setting agendas
 Negotiating outcomes
 Conferring legitimacy
 Implementing solutions
Attending UN meetings
 To influence the text that will be negotiated;
 To build and cultivate alliances for future work;
 To show case studies of successes that your
organization has achieved;
 To learn about how intergovernmental negotiations
work;
 To raise funds for your work
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Preparing for the meeting
 Are you accredited?
 Are your policy aims feasible?
 Are you moving beyond the possible range of
outcomes to put down markers for future campaigns?
 What are your top four or five issues? Concentrate on
these.
 What do you want to achieve?
 Create a table
Before the meeting
Government
For
Against
Not yet
declared
Still to be
contacted
Checklist to take with you
 Laptop with wireless connection to the internet – and
the right conversion plug to recharge;
 Memory stick;
 Mobile telephone – better to get one or just a SIM card
in the country you come to as it will be cheaper to run;
 If you are in a main UN Centre (e.g. New York, Geneva,
Nairobi, or Rome) then take with you the telephone
and addresses of the Missions of the key countries;
 Business cards – if you hire a mobile put the details on
the back of the card, people are unlikely to telephone
you if the number is not local;
 Digital camera to take photos of key delegates;
 Your publications;
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What participation and influence
mechanisms should NGOS employ ?
 Game plan for the whole negotiation – Coalition
should be asking national partners to before you arrive
at a UN meeting
 organized several meeting in capitals with key
governments
 brief the media, place early stories in the media
 Meet with key parliamentarians before leaving –
initiated a debate in parliament
 Set up a rapid response mechanism in the capital in
case you need it
 Try to get an NGOs on delegation and allowed to
attend pre inter-departmental meetings before the
event
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What participation and influence
mechanisms should NGOS employ ?
 At the UN event a coalition should:
 have a photo booklet of key negotiators and UN staff so
they are easy to find www.iisd.ca
 Designate point contacts for all key people eg G77, EU, US,
key countries, Bureau members, UN officials,
 There should be floor managers in each negotiation room
 Use coffee bar diplomacy, receptions
 Use any informal possibilities drinks/dinner/dancing
 If you are spending more than 20% of your time with NGOs
you are not doing your job.
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What levers of influence do they have in the
negotiation stages ?
 Much less as the process moves to end game
 Offer to support smaller states eg FIELD helped AOSIS
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in the climate change negotiations
Use NGOs on delegations
Focus on governments with single decisions eg
Norway, Japan, New Zealand, Austria, Canada, US
Work with strong G77 countries eg South Africa,
China, India Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia and
chair of G77
Be there until 4am to offer text changes
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Know your delegates
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Vienna Cafe – New York UN
basement
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Who is able to speak
 Getting access to the floor as an NGO (working
through NGO or stakeholder groupings)
 It might be possible to take the floor as an individual
accredited organisation on some occasions
 Have 200 copies of your intervention – give copies to
the UN staff for the interpreters and to distribute
 Short and to the point
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On delegation
 You will have access to the brief of your country;
 You may be able to sit in on delegation meetings
within blocks;
 You may be able to sit in on delegation meetings
between blocks;
 You will be able to push for the NGO or stakeholder
position during the appropriate meetings of the
delegation;
 You can be asked to act as the intermediary between
the NGOs and the government;
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On delegation
 You will be aware of where there is possible movement
in a negotiation and may
 be asked to draft text for your delegation to put
forward;
 You will be able to cultivate relationships with the
delegation for future work.
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Downside of being on
delegation
 If you do join a government delegation you will lose some
independence. Some governments will require NGOs on a
delegation to sign an official document saying they will not
divulge what they have heard in delegation meetings;
 You will have limited time available for being with other
NGOs if you are an active member of the delegation;
 You may be seen as the doorkeeper for NGOs with the
delegation or you may be viewed as having ‘switched sides’
and joined the government team
 You may not be allowed to speak publicly on a position
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The countries
 European Union
 G77 and China
 Key G77 countries Argentina, Brazil, China, India,
Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa
 Single decision countries eg US, Canada, New Zealand,
Norway, Japan, Australia, Russia, Ukraine
 AOSIS
 Regional Blocks Africa, Asia, Latin America and the
Caribbean
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Bureaus
 All meetings have Bureaus to oversee the running of
the meetings. The Bureaus usually can be made up of
five or ten members, one or two from each of the
different regional blocks. The chair or president of the
Bureau will rotate between the different regional
blocks. The Bureau members will share chairing the
sessions of the negotiations and probably the ad hoc
meetings as well. It is very important to create a
relationship with these people particularly the one
from your region.
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The meeting
 Committee of the Whole (COW): the formal
sessions of a UNEP or MEA COP meeting, these are
governed by rules of procedure and are simultaneously
translated in all of the six UN languages.
 Contact groups: are set up to resolve a particular
issue of disagreement. The members of the group
are drawn from the governments who disagree,
although they are open to others to attend. Sometimes
called the Vienna process or “Vienna setting” where
much of the informal negotiations goes on.
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The meeting
 Friends of the Chair/President: the meeting can
use the Friends of the Chair approach – this is
where the Chair invites a few of the prominent
negotiators to form a group called Friends of the
Chair/President to help informally in developing
consensus on an issue or a set of issues.
 Informals: are a subsidiary body of the working
groups and are set up when there is a set of critical
issues that needs to be addressed.
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The meeting
 Working Groups: are subsidiary bodies of the
COW. At any one time, usually no more than two
will be meeting. Joint Working Groups come together
when there are cross cutting issues the two working
groups can be brought together to deal with them.
 Ministerial Round Tables are when Ministers want
to discuss an issue but are not yet ready to make a
decision
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Secretariat
 The Secretariat is the permanent body that supports
the work of the convention between meetings and
does the logistical and secretariat work for the event
and during it. The Secretariat will have a role that
includes:
 Preparing the background papers
 Producing or updating a website for the meeting
 Analyzing the national reports
 Producing promotional material for the meeting
 Producing negotiating text arising from the
discussions
 Making available all official documents
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Key people in the secretariat
 The NGO or Stakeholder relations person
 The Executive Director of the Convention
 The “fixer”
 The person in charge of the text section you are
interested in
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The world of brackets
 Alternative brackets
 Contentious brackets
 Suspicious brackets
 Tactical or trading brackets
 Uncertain brackets
 Waiting brackets
 Weary brackets
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Brackets
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Who put the bracket in?
When you know who put it forward, ask why.
The ‘why’ may not be clear to other delegations and you
can play an important role in highlighting the ‘why’ in
your lobbying.
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:
Depending on why?
 If it was because they are waiting for instructions from
the capital, then phone your colleagues in the capital
and get them to raise the issue with relevant civil
servants or ministers. This only works if you are
completely on top of the negotiations and can act
immediately.
 If it involves trading brackets with somewhere else in
the text, then you need to be able to work with the
stakeholders who are trying to lobby on that section.
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Depending on why 2?
 If it is because of exhaustion brackets, then make
some text suggestions. This can be a very opportunistic
time as officials are tired and looking for a way through
the darkness – or even to go home for the night!
 If there are suspicious brackets, then it is important to
work out why and try to help build trust.
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Strength of terms
Term
definition
Calls for Asking
governments
to do
something
Just the term Does it say who Does it have
- no action
should do it?
timelines?
identified
Does it have
a monitoring
mechanism?
What are the conditions needed for a
coalition to succeed ?
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Know Your Own Goals
Know the Decision-making Process in Your Country
Know When To Work at What Level
Know the Decision-making Context
Know the Tools at Your Disposal
Know When To Make Your Position
Know the Government Officials
Know the Key UN Officials
Know Your Allies
Know Your Adversaries
Know Your Limits
Know Your Brackets and Terms
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