March 2018

I served as the moderator for the dialogue, which represents part of UN Environment’s commitment to deliver on the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development outcome document: ‘The Future We Want’. This document calls for “the active participation of all relevant stakeholders, drawing on best practices and models from relevant multilateral institutions and exploring new mechanisms, to promotetransparency and the effective engagement of civil society” within the framework of its decision to strengthen the role of the United Nations Environment Programme as the leading global environmental authority.

Stakeholder engagement has been an important component of the development of UN Environment since its inception at the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment. The concept of ‘Major Groups’ was pioneered by the first UN Environment Executive Director, Maurice Strong, when he was Secretary-General of the Earth Summit in 1992. He recognized that categorizing all nongovernment actors under the term NGO or civil society meant that not all voices were being
heard. He understood that in policy discussions it is vital that women are able to provide a gender perspective, that youth can present the views of the next generation, that indigenous peoples are given the opportunity to talk about environmental impacts on their land, and that local and subnational governments can help inform national governments of the challenges to implementation at the local level. In 2004, UN Environment recognized the need to hear the voices of a broader range of stakeholders – beyond the nine Major Groups. This was also reflected by the UN as a whole in the 2030 Agenda.
Multi-stakeholder dialogues in other forums could also be used to inform the development of UN Environment’s own approach to embedding stakeholders in the workings of UN Environment
Assembly and UN Environment. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development from
1998 to 2001, is an interesting example. The first two days of each session were given over to four multi-stakeholder dialogues on issues that Member States were going to negotiate, enabling them to draw useful lessons into policy decisions. This approach might be worth considering for future UNEA sessions.
The development of the Sustainable Development Goals provides a good illustration of how governments, the UN and relevant stakeholders can contribute their expertise to negotiations, encouraging them to engage in the implementation of these goals and targets.
Multi-stakeholder partnerships will play a critical role in helping to implement UNEA decisions,
particularly if stakeholders are engaged in the development of those decisions. 
UNEP Perspective Paper 30 available here.