Description of project:
CANARI provided technical assistance to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission to develop a strategy that can guide its engagement of key stakeholders in the civil society and private sectors to contribute to efforts aimed at the management and sustainable use of marine and terrestrial biodiversity in the OECS. The Stakeholder Engagement Strategy fulfils a mandate from the OECS Council of Ministers for Environmental Sustainability and is supported under the OECS Commission’s BioSPACE project (OECS/BioSPACE/2021/SER_02) funded by the European Union.
The Strategy provides guidelines for engagement of civil society (including national and community-based groups) and private sector stakeholders (including resource users, user associations and nature-based micro-enterprises). It will be used by public sector agencies in the OECS, the OECS Commission, and their partners working on biodiversity and ecosystems management in the OECS region. This work will take place from July to September 2021. See here for project summary.
Highlights:
CANARI provided technical assistance to the OECS Commission for development of a draft Stakeholder Engagement Strategy for Civil Society and Private Sectors. Seventy-six stakeholders from OECS governments, private sector and civil society were directly engaged in the process of development of this Strategy.
Key activities and results:
- CANARI conducted a desk review of 52 policies, plans, strategies and other documents to inform development of the Strategy aligned with and to support existing OECS frameworks. This provided the policy context and a strong rationale for engagement of civil society and private sector stakeholders in environmental governance and management in the OECS.
- Seventy-six stakeholders were directly engaged in the process of development of the Strategy, some of the in multiple processes. CANARI conducted interviews and focus group sessions and a regional webinar with private sector, civil society, government stakeholders and OECS Commission staff on their needs, expectations, lessons, good practices and opportunities for effective engagement. OECS stakeholders also inputted via an online survey and by email exchanges. Input was also received from OECS government’s senior technical officers on the OECS Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management Committee and supporting the OECS Council of Ministers for Environmental Sustainability.
- Based on stakeholder input and the desk review, CANARI developed a draft Stakeholder Engagement Strategy which includes: a definition of stakeholder engagement in the OECS context; an overview of the policy context; presentation of current stakeholder engagement and recommendations; a list of guiding principles for effective stakeholder engagement; a list of types of stakeholders by relevant categories; details on proposed engagement approaches, methods, tools and tactics; a clear process of key steps to engage stakeholders; key messages, products and dissemination pathways that can contribute to changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of target stakeholders; implementation recommendations; and monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches. A separate database of 386 civil society organisations/ networks and 91 private sector organisations/ associations was also submitted.
- CANARI also prepared a 4-page summary for target OECS Commission and government users who want to engage stakeholders in their work, and an infographic for civil society and private sector beneficiaries who will be engaged.
Publications:
Please contact Norma Cherry-Fevrier at [email protected] at the OECS Commission.
Recent news and blogs:
Related publications:
Facilitating participatory natural resource management: A toolkit for Caribbean managers (English, French, Spanish)
For more information, please contact Nicole Leotaud at [email protected]
See related work under CANARI’s Civil Society and Governance programme.
