SF Annual Report

SF Annual Report

Stakeholder Forum for aHeadin Sustainable Future g 2008 Annual Report 1 Annual Report 2008 Stakeholder Forum 2008 Annual Report Table of Contents A Message from the Chair of Stakeholder Forum, Andrew Binns Page 3 A Message from the Executive Director, Felix Dodds Page 4 Stakeholder Forum’s Key Achievements in 2008 Page 5 Building Political Momentum to Strengthen Institutions for Sustainable Page 7 Development Governance Strengthening the Implementation of Sustainable Development Page 9 Commitments on Water Building the Capacity of Stakeholders to Engage in Page 11 Environmental Decision-Making Processes Stakeholder Communication and Information Page 13 Stakeholder Forum Staff & Governance Page 14 2 2 Annual Report 2008 Stakeholder Forum 2008 Annual Report A Message from the Chair of Stakeholder Forum In a world of attention seeking politicians and organizations, Stakeholder Forum occupies a special position focusing on impact and change not on headlines. Our work is often in the shadow of major policy decisions and international forums on sustainable development. Although outside of the glare of attention, we are able to make a profound contribution to the quality of decisions made by bodies like the UN. Our challenge is that the need for our work is becoming more urgent as the threats to our climate, security, water supply and habitats become more acute. International action on a range of crises has faltered; promises of change have gone unfunded or been swallowed up by political machinations. The new US administration presents an opportunity for a new era; one that we aim to help the world grasp. Stakeholder Forum has a critical role to play by improving the transparency of decision-making by engaging the widest possible stakeholders in the debate about the future of our planet. Stakeholder Forum is well set to meet this challenge. We have the most secure financial platform in our history; the strongest team that we’ve ever had; and a tightly focused board highly committed to the success of the organization. We’ve also strengthened our consultation processes with our own stakeholders by splitting the role of Chairman and President. We are immensely pleased to have retained the services of our outgoing Chairman, Derek Osborn, as President. Derek’s impeccable credentials in the field of sustainable development will help us to find a more confident voice in international organizations. This will enable the Chairman and Board to oversee the evolving organization. We look to 2009-10 with some anticipation. Both for the role we aspire to play in shaping the proposed 2012 Earth Summit and for the innovative new projects that we will be launching with the support of our many partners. These will stretch SF into the application of new media to stakeholder engagement; see us reach into new areas with our policy initiatives; and continue with our excellent work on Water. All of this progress is testament to a small but extraordinarily committed team. They may not make headlines but in a thousand small ways their efforts helps to edge the world closer to being a better place. Andrew Binns 3 3 Annual Report 2008 Stakeholder Forum 2008 Annual Report A Message from the Executive Director Stakeholder Forum has continued to show leadership in 2008 to work on the issue of Human Economic and Environmental Insecurity. In September we co-hosted the workshop on the MDG Goals Beyond 2015 with Peace Child and GCAP as partners. We also hosted the first workshop on what a possible Earth Summit might address if it is held in 2012. It highlighted a number of possible key outcomes such as conventions on Access to Information, Participation and Justice and Corporate Accountability, a possible Global Commission on a Green New Deal feeding into the financial conversation, an Earth Charter and a work program to address the emerging nexus of economic, human and environmental security. Finally a Summit could tackle the international environment and sustainable development architecture. The failure of the processes around International Environmental Governance is very sad and we can only hope that through the possibility of an Earth Summit in 2012 governments will again engage in trying to improve both the international environmental and sustainable development governance systems so they can cope with the challenges in front of us. Perhaps one of the most significant developments for Stakeholder Forum in the past year has been the developing work on water and climate. Building on the excellent work that was undertaken by the Global Public Policy Network on Water Management for the review at this year’s Commission on Sustainable Development DfID requested that we develop a front on climate and water in the area of adaptation at the UNFCCC meetings. We are busy with our partner the Stockholm International Water Institute developing a meta alliance to work in 2009 on water and climate leading up to the 2009 UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen. Returning to the excellent work that the GPPN did for the 2008 review of water it shows a very good example of how to prepare for a global meeting working with stakeholders, governments and the UN to enable better preparation for these kinds of reviews. This year also saw Stakeholder Forum move into radio on the web. This exciting development supported by UN Radio enabled Stakeholder Forum to produce eight twenty minute radio programs on the web linked by the BBC web site these eight round tables one on each of the Millennium Development Goals were an opportunity for stakeholders, governments and UN officials to discuss success and failure around the MDGs and what might be attempted in the future to address problems. We hope in the future to develop this work around other UN fora. The major stakeholder input to the 2008 EcoSoc Annual Ministerial Review on MDG7 and the Millennium Development Special Event Heads of State Round Table on Environmental Sustainability were undertaken by Stakeholder Forum at the request of the UN and supported financially by DfID. These enabled a wide range of stakeholders many of who could not attend these events to have their views expressed. We hope to offer this role for other UN events in 2009. Finally the work undertaken on the Stakeholder Empowerment project will offer the UN a set of case studies on how to better engage stakeholders in a number of ways such as dialogues, hearings and round tables. It builds on the excellent work we under took for the book Multi-stakeholder Processes on Governance and Sustainability. All in all a very active and successful year for Stakeholder Forum which we will build on in 2009. Felix Dodds 4 Executive Director 4 Annual Report 2008 Stakeholder Forum 2008 Annual Report Stakeholder Forum’s Key Achievements in 2008 Stakeholder Forum’s mission is to inform, influence, promote and advance sustainable development. In 2008, Stakeholder Forum furthered this mission by: Fostering Sustainable Development Thought Human, Economic and Environmental Security: This work has been built on the ideas outlined in the Stakeholder Forum book Human and Environmental Security. Elements of this can be found in its work on Beyond 2015, Earth Summit 2012 and its work on Climate and Water. Beyond 2015: Stakeholder Forum working in partnership with the Global Coalition against Poverty and Peacechild International it initiated a global debate among stakeholders on what should be the Goals post 2015. This included hosting a workshop during the MDG Special Event. The partnership was given a mandate to continue to initiate discussion on the Goals up to a conference in 2010. Earth Summit 2012: Stakeholder Forum organized the first workshop on 2012 in November 2008 a week after G77 and China tabled the call for the Summit in the UN General Assembly. The workshop produced the Donostia Declaration. The missing 5th Building Block: Stakeholder Forum continued to work with the CSD Education Caucus to promote the need for a fifth working group in the UNFCCC meeting in Poznan on education for sustainability – otherwise known as the human dimension. Building political momentum to strengthen institutions for sustainable development governance through: Ensuring civil society input to the debate on UN reform for Environment and Sustainable Development. Inputting to the second meeting organized by Brazil on IEG, Stakeholder Forum with ANPED published a radical new way to look at the reform of UNEP more around a UNDP model. Strengthening the implementation of sustainable development commitments on water through: Launching at World Water Week a new Global Public Policy Network (GPPN) to engage major stakeholders in preparing a review of the implementation of water and sanitation commitments made at CSD13. The GPPN is managed by Stakeholder Forum and Stockholm International Water Institute, its Steering Committee includes five governments, UN Water and key stakeholder groups. The work of the Network will contribute to looking at the reason behind why commitments have not been implemented and making suggestions on the way forward. Engaging stakeholders in the follow up to the Second Intergovernmental Review Meeting of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities. At UNEP’s request we have in 2008 re-launched GP Outreach as a mechanism to keep stakeholders informed on developments on the GPA. Engaging stakeholders in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) on Sustainable Development, July 2008. Stakeholder Forum

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