Klima-KomPakt: Cooperated with ifeu (Heidelberg, Germany), The German Institute for Urban Studies (Difu, Cologne) and nextpractice GmbH on Klima-KomPakt: Needs assessment, stakeholder participation and ensuring continuity in municipal climate action, contracted by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. One main output is an interactive website providing guidance for citizen and stakeholder participation in local climate action: www.prozess-wegweiser.de (in German); 2017-2020.
Consultant Celia Schmidt supported me in this project, reviewing research on citizen and stakeholder participation, supporting the development of a tool guide for local governments, and collaborating with pilot municipalities.
In Zusammenarbeit mit ifeu (Heidelberg, Germany), dem Deutschen Institut für Urbanistik (Difu, Cologne) und der nextpractice GmbH, war ich für das Thema Beteiligung und Mitwirkung im kommunalen Klimaschutz verantwortlich, im Auftrag des BMU; 2017-2020. Beraterin Celia Schmidt unterstützte mich bei der Erstellung einer Studie zu Grundlagen der Beteiligung, der Zusammenarbeit mit Modellkommunen, und der Entwicklung eines interaktiven Prozess-Wegweisers.
Facilitated a 2-day international conference on Environmental Aspects in Public Procurement in Europe for the Berlin Energy Agency, on behalf of the German Environment Ministry and the German Environment Agency, in a hybrid format combining a small group in a face-to-face set-up and a large number of colleagues participating virtually in plenary panels and small discussion groups.
Supported GIZ’s Initiative for Sustainable Supply Chains in Agriculture and Food (INA) as a facilitator and team coach, 2017-2020.
Supported the GIZ project for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network – SDSN Germany, preparing and conducting an implementation workshop for the “South American SDG Platform”, being created by SDSN Amazonas and SDSN Andes, who won a GIZ call for joint initiatives among SDSN networks. Together with Dr Marcus Andreas, I supported the team in further developing their proposal, implementation planning and fundraising, through virtual workshops and coaching; July – November 2020.
Served as a facilitator for workshops, conferences, and UN HLPF Side Events for GIZ’s SARUN project on inequalities (SDG-10) and the BMZ/GIZ partnership initiative for implementing the 2030 Agenda;2017-2019.
Supported the ILO’s Partnering for Development (PARDEV) team in developing a tool for their staff working in and with multi-stakeholder partnerships: studying existing partnerships where ILO leads of participates, discussing challenges and lessons learned at an internal workshop, and preparing a tool for internal use, providing guidance and resources; August 2019 – July 2020.
Supported the German Federal Environment Ministry in preparations for ICCA2019, a follow-up to the International Conference on Climate Action – Local Governments Driving Transformation (ICCA2015), held in Heidelberg, Germany, in May 2019 (collaboration with ifeu and ifok), focusing on process design and facilitating and writing the Heidelberg Outcomes.
Member of the advisory board and event facilitator for the project Landkreise in Führung! (county councils taking the lead) of the German National Climate Initiative, supporting counties across Germany to work on climate with their member municipalities (in German); 2017 – 2019.
ClimateCulture-Lab: a project by the Pestel Institute, Climate Alliance and University of Aachen, Germany, funded by the German National Climate Initiative, developing a learning and collaboration platform to support local cultural development towards zero emissions. I supported process design and facilitation for local and national workshops, and facilitated the annual team learning and reflection process; 2017 – 2019.
Supported Prof. Ruth Schmitt’s project on local multi-stakeholder engagement processes for renewable energy planning in Switzerland as a member of the advisory group (FH Nordwestschweiz – University of Applied Sciences North West Switzerland).
I served as a member of the Jury for Swiss Re’s International ReSource Award for Resilience in Water Management 2003-2019. Swiss Re’s Resource Award recognised projects that preserve the ecological, social and economic value of water resources. The global reinsurer’s foundation supported water projects across the world, committed to creating feasible and binding conditions to protect this vital resource.
Presentation at the 10th Psychology Day at the UN, held April 20, 2017, on Impacts of Environmental Challenges on Psychological Well-Being, and Psychological Contributions to Realizing the SDGs. (webcast available at UNWebTV)
Study for GIZ: Stakeholder analysis and process design for potential multi-stakeholder partnerships on natural resources and supply chains; Nov – Dec 2016.
The German Council for Sustainable Development – Open.SDG.Club.Berlin: Facilitated the scoping meeting in November 2015, and contributed to the conference in November 2016, with a presentation on stakeholder engagement in the voluntary national reviews of SDG implementation presented at the UN High-Level Political Forum in 2016.
July 17, 2016, CatalySD co-hosted with the Global Research Institute / GRI, University of North Carolina, a workshop on high-quality multi-stakeholder partnerships for implementing the SDGs, in New York, on the margins of the UN High Level Political Forum. Felix Dodds of GRI and myself co-facilitated the workshop. A blog article about the workshop can be found here, and the summary report is available as New World Frontiers paper here.
Contribution to the ‘home days’ retreat of the staff at the Centre for Development Innovation at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, in January 2016 – sharing experiences with dialogic multi-stakeholder processes, and facilitating a ‘presencing’ reflection.
Climate Dialogue: Process optimization, exchange and mobilization at the local level (2013-2015): Since municipal / local climate mitigation has become one of the key pillars of German climate and energy policy (“Energiewende”), the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection, Building and Nuclear Safety strategically strengthened this policy area. I have been leading the project, implemented by a consortium of Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik (Difu), ifeu – Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg, Klima-Bündnis / Climate Alliance, Pestel Institut and Institut EBUS, headed by adelphi. The project focused on initiating and facilitating mutual learning, continuous exchange, strategy building and training including all relevant stakeholders at various levels. Complementing activities included surveys and policy briefs on understanding local transformational processes, consultation and facilitation services.
In October 2015, I participated in a UN Expert Group Meeting on the Social Dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals, contributing a paper and a presentation.
In July 2015, I published Multi-stakeholder Engagement and Communications for Sustainability. Beyond Sweet-Talk and Blanket Criticism – Towards Successful Implementation with François Rogers. The paper is looking at the context of ‘partnerships’ today and the way forward, in particular regarding the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Gaols. It has been incorporated into the UN SD Knowledge Platform, and referenced as a key resource on multi-stakeholder consultation in the Getting Started With the SDGs Guide by SDSN.
With CatalySD Sustainability Communications I have also co-authored Towards New Social Contracts: Using Dialogue Processes to Promote Social Change, a toolkit for CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation (2015). The toolkit is based on concrete cases of dialogue processes around the world, CIVICUS’ members experiences with dialogue, and our own long-term experience.
I have been supporting the development and implementation of the Leadership for Conservation in Africa initiative (LCA) when I could, since its inaugural meeting in August 2006. The LCA is a partnership between the conservation agencies of 15+ African countries and African and international businesses. Initiated by South African National Parks, Gold Fields, and IUCN Southern Africa, the LCA aims to further conservation-led development across Africa through creating enabling environments, building capacities, and brokering strategic exchange and investment.
Stakeholder Engagement Process of the Kuoni Group: This globally active tour operator headquartered in Switzerland, embarked in 2010 on a long-term process of engaging with its stakeholders. I am supporting process design and facilitation with an initial focus on freshwater issues. Dialogue, joint learning, and the balancing of interests between very different groups was facilitated internally and with external stakeholders. A number of pilot activities were identified in 2011, to be implemented and evaluated for future strategy, and supporting the sustainability of the company. A small “Inner Circle” of internal and external stakeholders and experts was helping to guide the process. They followed the pilot activities, discussed future issues of stakeholder engagement, and how to further integrate sustainability into the core business strategy of the company.
I co-coordinated the Generative Change Community (GCC), a network focusing on action learning projects with change initiatives of various kinds, from 2006 until 2010. GCC worked to help initiatives optimize the quality of thinking and the quality of interaction in their design, planning, implementation, evaluation and efforts to scale up. This included multi-stakeholder dialogues for policy and institutional development; organizational development processes; monitoring and evaluation processes; and other initiatives and projects that aim to effectively create sustained change.
In 2008-2010, I worked on a Re-envisioning Process with The Access Initiative (TAI), an international network working to increase access to information, participation and justice in environmental matters, hosted by the World Resources Institute. I have also been facilitating TAI Core Team meetings.
I have helped facilitate the dialogue process Towards a Low Carbon Economy, initiated by the Government of Germany. A number of key emerging countries participated, among them Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and South Africa. A preparatory workshop held in December 2008 was followed by a first Dialogue Forum in April 2009. Subsequent dialogues were held in participating countries, focusing on sustainable energy supply, energy consumption in cities, and land use & forest protection.